1  THE  I 


HAWNEES 
WARNING 


D.  LANGE 


355D 


THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 


.  or  CALIF.         «».  I.OS  ANfiEU» 


"INDIAN"   STORIES 
WITH  HISTORICAL  BASES 

BY  D.  LANGE 

12mo    Cloth    Illustrated 
ON  THE  TRAIL  OF   THE   SIOUX 

THE   SILVER   ISLAND   OF   THE 
CHIPPEWA 

LOST   IN   THE   FUR   COUNTRY 

IN  THE   GREAT   WILD   NORTH 

THE  LURE   OF   THE  BLACK   HILLS 

THE   LURE   OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI 
THE   SILVER   CACHE   OF   THE   PAWNEE 

THE   SHAWNEE'S   WARNING 

THE   THREAT   OF   SITTING   BULL 

THE   RAID   OF   THE   OTTAWA 

THE   MOHAWK   RANGER 

THE  IROQUOIS  SCOUT 

THE  SIOUX  RUNNER 

THE  GOLD  ROCK  OF  THE   CHIPPEWA 


LOTHROP,   LEE   &   SHEPARD   CO.,   BOSTON 


THE    SHAWNEE'S 
WARNING 

A  Story  of  the  Oregon  Trail 


BY 

D.     LANGE 

AUTHOR  OF    "IN   THE   GREAT  WILD    NORTH,"    "LOST    IN   THE   F0R 

COUNTRY,"    "THE   LURE  OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI,"    "THE 

SILVER   CACHE   OF  THE   PAWNEE,"    ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  RUFUS  C.  HARRINGTON 


BOSTON 
LOTHROP,    LEE   &   SHEPARD    CO. 


COPYRIGHT,  1919,  BY  D.  LANGE 


THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 


Horwoofc  presa 

BERWICK  &  SMITH  CO. 

NORWOOD,  MASS. 
D.  S.  A. 


FOKEWORD 

The  history  of  the  United  States  is  that  of 
a  young  giant  among  nations. 

Many  phases  connected  with  our  growth 
have  been  unique  and  can  never  be  repeated 
in  the  life  of  any  other  nation,  because  there 
is  no  other  continent  like  North  America  on 
the  face  of  the  earth. 

Many  phases  of  our  national  life  have 
passed  rapidly  into  history  like  scenes  of  a 
big  film  story. 

Among  those  national  scenes  are  the  Fur 
Trade  of  the  Far  West  and  the  Settlement  of 
Oregon. 

It  is  on  these  two  scenes  that  the  present 
story  is  based. 

The  American  Fur  Company  and  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company  were  the  two  great  corpo- 
rations engaged  in  the  trade  of  buffalo  robes, 
beaver  fur  and  many  other  kinds  of  peltries. 

The  business  was  carried  on  principally 
among  the  wild  Indian  tribes  of  the  plains 

3 

2130832 


4  FOREWORD 

and  the  mountains.  To  the  picturesque  life 
of  the  Indians,  the  brave  Independent  Trap- 
pers added  another  element  full  of  adventure 
and  romance. 

The  greatest  days  of  the  western  fur  trade 
ended  with  the  emigration  to  Oregon,  which 
began  on  a  large  scale  in  1843. 

This  is  the  time  chosen  for  our  story,  the 
scenes  of  which  are  laid  among  the  wild  Indian 
tribes  and  the  adventurous  bands  of  Independ- 
ent Trappers  of  the  plains  and  the  moun- 
tains; and  on  the  long  Oregon  Trail,  which 
extended  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  Independ- 
ence, and  other  Missouri  Eiver  points  to  the 
Columbia  and  the  Willamette. 

D.  LANGE. 
St.  Paul,  Minnesota, 

June,  1919. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I  PAGE 

Two  BOYS  AND  A  DOG  ..........     11 

CHAPTER  II 
A  Bio  PBOBLEM   ............     17 


CHAPTER  III 
SAM  is  WORRIED  ............     23 

CHAPTER  IV 
THE  DECISION       ............     29 

CHAPTER  V 
THE  FIRST  INDIAN    ...........     3* 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  WABKING 


CHAPTER  VII 
GOOD  NEWS  AND  BAD     ..........     51 

CHAPTER  Vin 
ON  THE  LONG  TRAIL     ..........     59 

CHAPTER  IX 
ALONG  THE  PLATTE  ...........     '7 

CHAPTER  X 
STRANGE  SOUNDS       ...........     72 

CHAPTER  XI 
THE  CROW'S  THREAT       ..........     83 


6  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XII  PAGE 

TRAVELING  BY  THE  NOBTH  STAB 91 

CHAPTER  XIII 
SPOTTED  WOLF 100 

CHAPTER  XIV 
A  STRANGE  COUNTRY >    .  109 

CHAPTER  XV 
THE  HUNTING  CAMP 119 

CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  ELK  HUNT 129 

CHAPTER  XVII 
LOOKING  FOR  THE  TRAIL 138 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
JOHN  COLTER'S  ADVENTURE 147 

CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  DREADED  BLACKFEET 156 

CHAPTER  XX 
ATTEB  THE  LOST  HUNTERS 166 

CHAPTER  XXI 
Tme  BUCKSKIN   MESSAGE 176 

CHAPTER  XXII 
A  ROBBED  CACHE 187 

CHAPTER  XXIII 
To  FORT  HALL  AND  PIERRE'S  HOLE 198 

CHAPTER  XXIV 
THE  BRUSH  FORT     ....  .211 


CONTENTS  7 

CHAPTER  XXV  PAGE 

WILL  THEY  COMB? 220 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

.  229 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
ALDEBS  AND  BEONC 237 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 
THE  TEAPPEB'S  PLAN     . 251 

CHAPTER  XXIX 
AFTEB  THEM  AGAIN 266 

CHAPTER  XXX 
A  CLOSE  CALL 273 

CHAPTER  XXXI 
A  HOBSE  AND   A  Doo 282 

CHAPTER  XXXII 
TRAVEL,  TRAVEL!        294 

CHAPTER  XXXIII 
A  Bio  FIGHT 303 

CHAPTER  XXXIV 
THE  END  OF  THE  TBAII,   ....  .  316 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

"Oregon  Trail!     Oregon  Trail!    We've  found  the 

Trail!"    (Page   146) Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

"Good  black  soup,"  he  remarked.    "Heap  good"     .  42 

"Rub  you  out,"  the  Indian  signaled  once  more  .      .  90 

They  were  suddenly  surrounded  by  Indians  .     .     .  164 

"I  reckon  they're  the  Indians  we've  been  hunting"  272 

Al  had  an  arrow  sticking  in  his  shoulder  ....  314 


THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

CHAPTER  I 

TWO   BOYS   AND   A   DOG 

BEN  HOWARD  and  Dick  Hamilton  were  hav- 
ing such  a  good  time  in  the  woods  near  Fort 
Leavenworth,  in  Kansas,  that  they  did  not 
care  how  much  longer  they  would  have  to  wait 
for  Mark  Stebbins,  who  was  to  be  their  guide 
and  leader,  when  they  joined  the  emigrants 
who,  in  the  spring  of  1843,  started  from  Mis- 
souri, to  the  far-away  valley  of  the  Willam- 
ette in  Oregon. 

The  two  lads  were  at  the  age,  when  boys 
have  outgrown  their  childish  fears,  and  when 
the  love  of  discovery  and  adventure  leads 
them  into  scrapes  and  difficulties  which  puz- 
zle and  worry  their  elders. 

Their  two  older  brothers,  between  eighteen 
and  twenty,  Sam  Howard  and  Al  Hamilton, 
had  passed  beyond  the  years  when  a  boy  just 
lives  from  day  to  day.  They  were  suffering 

11 


12      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WABNING 

much  worry  and  anxiety ;  although  all  around 
them  the  birds  sang  in  the  trees,  the  squir- 
rels chattered  and  raced,  and  every  day  their 
two  small  brothers  related  with  glowing 
cheeks  and  flashing  eyes  their  exploits  and 
adventures  with  their  big  dog  Prince. 

For  almost  a  month  they  had  now  camped 
and  waited  in  the  cabin  of  Mark  Stebbins, 
who,  according  to  an  agreement  made  with 
the  parents  of  the  four  lads,  was  to  take  the 
boys  over  the  Oregon  Trail  to  the  Willam- 
ette Valley.  The  fathers  and  mothers  of  the 
lads  with  some  smaller  children,  had  left  for 
Oregon  by  ship  around  Cape  Horn,  while  the 
four  lads  with  Stebbins  and  another  man, 
familiarly  known  as  Big  Joe,  were  to  take 
the  long  overland  trail  and  do  their  best  to 
bring  some  wagons,  horses,  and  cattle  to  the 
American  settlements  in  Oregon. 

The  Oregon  country  at  this  time  was  held 
jointly  by  the  United  States  and  Great  Brit- 
ain, and  far-seeing  American  patriots,  like  the 
noble  pioneer  and  missionary  Marcus  Whit- 
man, were  doing  their  best  to  attract  Ameri- 
can settlers  to  Oregon  in  order  to  save  the  dis- 
puted country  for  the  United  States. 


TWO  BOYS  AND  A  DOG  13 

It  had  seemed  a  wise  and  safe  plan  to  spare 
the  women  and  small  children  the  hardships 
of  a  long  and  dangerous  overland  journey, 
while  the  four  lads,  under  the  leadership  of 
Mark  Stebbins  and  Big  Joe,  would  join  the 
overland  train,  which  would  leave  Indepen- 
dence, Missouri,  the  latter  part  of  May. 

But  now  this  well-devised  plan  was  going 
all  wrong.  Mark  Stebbins  had  been  called 
back  to  Pittsburgh  by  the  serious  illness  of 
his  aged  father.  The  emigrants,  about  one 
thousand  strong,  had  started  west  on  the 
twenty- second  of  May  under  the  leadership  of 
Peter  H.  Burnette,  while  Jesse  Applegate  was 
in  command  of  the  so-called  cow  column, 
which  embraced  about  five  thousand  head  of 
stock.  With  the  emigrants  was  Marcus 
Whitman,  who  had  come  east  the  previous 
year  to  arouse  interest  in  the  Oregon  coun- 
try, and  had  now  started  west  again  for  his 
station  among  the  Cayuse  Indians  near  Walla 
Walla.  It  would  have  been  quite  safe  for 
the  boys  to  travel  through  the  Indian  coun- 
try in  company  of  hundreds  of  armed  men  un- 
der the  leadership  and  guidance  of  Burnette, 
Applegate,  and  Whitman. 


14      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

For  several  weeks,  the  boys  had  kept  up 
their  spirits,  looking  every  day  for  the  re- 
turn of  Mark  Stebbins  and  feeling  sure  that 
they  could  overtake  the  emigrant  train,  be- 
fore it  reached  the  dangerous  Indian  coun- 
try. 

But  now  that  hope  was  gone.  The  long 
anxious  days  of  waiting  had  dragged  into 
weeks.  It  was  the  middle  of  June.  The 
emigrant  train  must  have  reached  the  coun- 
try of  the  thieving  Pawnees  and  Crows  and 
of  the  warlike  Sioux  on  the  middle  and  upper 
Platte  River ;  but  of  Mark  Stebbins  there  was 
no  news. 

About  a  week  later  the  four  lads  were 
seated  in  the  cabin  for  dinner.  Dick  and  Ben 
had  just  come  in,  hungry  and  excited.  Prince 
had  learned  a  new  trick,  they  related  with 
much  spirit.  He  could  trail  Indians.  Sure, 
he  could;  and  find  them,  too,  every  time.  It 
didn't  matter  how  the  Indian  was  hid  and 
how  he  doubled  on  his  track. 

' '  Dead  sure,  fellows, ' '  Dick  finished  the 
story.  "Prince  is  a  regular  bloodhound. 
There  can't  any  Indian  give  him  the  slip. 
And  if  the  Indian  climbs  a  tree,  you  ought  to 


TWO  BOYS  AND  A  DOG  15 

hear  Prince  bark  and  see  him  scratch  the 
tree  just  like  a  coon  dog. ' ' 

''What  Indian  did  you  try  him  on?"  asked 
Al. 

"We  didn't  have  any  real  Indian  to  try  him 
on,"  admitted  Ben,  "but  we  took  turns  play- 
ing Indian  and  white  man,  and  he  ran  his 
Indian  down  every  time." 

"Better  teach  him  to  keep  Indians  away," 
suggested  Dick's  big  brother  Al. 

"Oh,  he  knows  that  already,"  Dick  came 
to  the  defense  of  their  dog.  "Don't  you  re- 
member how  he  almost  tore  the  blanket  off  the 
Indian  that  came  to  the  cabin  last  month  to 
ask  for  something  to  eat?  I  bet  that  Indian 
told  all  the  other  Indians,  for  there  hasn't 
been  one  of  them  here  since." 

"You  had  better  go  and  find  Joe,"  Al 
changed  the  subject.  "I  am  afraid  the  In- 
dians will  steal  our  cattle  if  Joe  does  not  go 
to  look  for  them,  but  Joe  is  awfully  busy  tell- 
ing his  big  stories  to  some  of  the  green  sol- 
diers at  the  fort.  Hang  it,  boys,  his  stories 
don't  fit  together.  I  don't  believe  he  has  ever 
been  a  hundred  miles  west  of  the  settlements. 
He  surely  does  not  seem  to  be  very  keen 


16      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

about  starting  west  without  Mark  Stebbins." 
Just  then  a  steamboat  whistled  for  the 

landing  on  the  Missouri,  and  with  one  thought 

in  mind,  the  boys  rushed  out  of  the  cabin  and 

down  the  road  to  the  landing. 
If  only  Mark  Stebbins  was  on  the  boat,  all 

their  troubles  would  be  ended.    Their  brave 

and   clear-headed   friend  would  know  just 

what  to  do. 


CHAPTER  II 

A  BIO   PROBLEM 

BEFORE  the  boat  had  dropped  her  gang- 
plank on  the  landing,  Ben  and  Dick  had 
climbed  aboard,  while  Prince,  their  insepa- 
rable companion,  although  always  a  dignified 
dog,  whined  disconsolately  because  he  could 
not  climb  a  post  and  jump  on  board  after 
the  manner  of  his  boy  masters. 

The  two  older  lads  quickly  scanned  every 
face  of  the  mixed  crowd  that  was  impatient  to 
land. 

There  were  some  officers  and  men  in  the 
uniform  of  the  United  States  Army,  for  Fort 
Leavenworth  was  the  great  point  of  inspec- 
tion for  the  Indian  trade.  Indians,  traders, 
immigrants,  and  men  not  easily  classified  filed 
off  behind  the  soldiers,  but  Mark  Stebbins 
was  not  on  board. 

Sad  and  much  disappointed  the  four  lads 
walked  slowly  to  the  post-office.  Perhaps 
Stebbins  had  sent  a  letter  that  would  ex- 

17 


18      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAKNING 

plain  his  failure  to  join  them.  He  had  always 
been  a  reliable  friend,  and  something  serious 
must  have  happened  to  prevent  him  from 
keeping  an  appointment  of  such  importance 
to  his  young  friends  and  to  fail  in  keeping  his 
promise  made  to  the  parents  of  the  lads,  who 
had  placed  such  utmost  confidence  in  him. 
For  it  had  only  been  on  the  condition  that 
Stebbins  would  bring  the  four  lads  safely  to 
Oregon  that  their  mothers  had  consented  to 
let  the  ooys  make  the  long,  dangerous  over- 
land journey  of  two  thousand  miles. 

The  postmaster  did  find  a  letter  for  Sam 
Howard  addressed  in  the  clear,  strong  hand 
of  Stebbins. 

"Mr  DEAR  BOYS/'  Sam  read  aloud,  with  his 
three  friends  crowding  around  him  in  a  cor- 
ner of  the  post-office. 

"Yon  cannot  be  more  disappointed  than  I 
am  at  my  inability  of  going  with  you  to 
Oregon.  But  my  aged  father  died  a  few  days 
ago  and  it  is  my  mother's  wish  that  I  stay 
with  her  during  the  summer. 

' '  This  wish  I  must  respect  and  heartily  de- 
sire to  respect. 

"As  it  is,  you  must  either  go  without  me, 
or  wait  till  next  spring,  when  I  should  be  glad 
to  take  you  through. 


A  BIG  PROBLEM  19 

"I  could,  this  season,  not  meet  you  till  Sep- 
tember, and  that  would  be  entirely  too  late  to 
start,  for  the  trip  takes  about  four  months; 
and  travel  over  the  plains  and  through  the 
mountains  in  the  dead  of  winter  would  be  too 
dangerous  for  us,  and  we  should  not  be  able 
to  find  food  for  our  horses. 

"So  you  must  either  now  join  the  emigrants 
without  me,  or  wait  for  me  till  next  spring. 

"I  have  written  your  father  two  letters, 
telling  him  that  I  am  unable  to  fulfill  my  con- 
tract and  what  I  have  suggested  to  you.  One 
letter  I  have  sent  via  New  Orleans  by  boat, 
and  another  overland  by  way  of  Independ- 
ence in  care  of  Marcus  Whitman,  the  mis- 
sionary. 

"Hoping  that  we  may  safely  meet  either 
in  Oregon  or  at  Fort  Leavenworth,  I  am, 
*  '  Ever  your  friend, 

"MAKK  STEBBINS." 

Sam  folded  the  letter,  and  silently  left  the 
post-ofuje,  the  other  lads  following  him.  All 
four  of  them  had  looked  forward  to  the  great 
journey  across  the  continent  with  Mark  Steb- 
bins  for  almost  a  year.  The  two  younger  lads 
especially  had,  in  their  imagination,  traveled 
the  route  a  thousand  times.  They  had  fought 
and  outwitted  Indians  in  all  sorts  of  ways,  and 
several  -times  one  or  the  other  had  started 
from  his  sleep  with  a  yell,  dreaming  that  a 
savage  warrior  had  at  last  caught  him  andx 


20      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

was  going  to  lift  his  scalp.  They  had,  in 
fancy,  hunted  bear  and  buffalo  and  antelope, 
they  had  practised  shooting  with  bows  and  ar- 
rows, and  had  tried  Sam's  and  Al's  rifles 
whenever  they  could  persuade  their  big  broth- 
ers to  let  them  do  so.  And  now  it  looked  as  if 
all  this  planning  would  come  to  nothing.  A 
whole  year  Mark  Stebbins  had  said  they 
would  have  to  wait  for  him.  Did  Mark  Steb- 
bins realize  what  it  meant  to  wait  for  some- 
thing a  whole  year  ? 

In  a  glum  mood  the  four  lads  slowly  walked 
up  the  hill  toward  their  cabin. 

"Sam,"  Ben  at  last  broke  the  silence,  "you 
aren't  going  to  stick  around  here  a  whole 
year  ?  Are  you  ?  Why,  man,  by  that  time  Fa- 
ther and  Mother  will  be  back,  and  we  rhall  not 
get  to  go  at  all.  Why  can't  you  take  us  to 
Oregon?  You  have  been  in  the  Indian  coun- 
try. We  can  join  the  emigrants  and  get 
through  all  right  and  Mark  Stebbins  can  come 
next  year,  if  he  wants  to." 

"Sure,  Sam,"  Dick  added,  "you  can  be  our 
captain  and  take  us  through.  And  Big  Joe 
will  go.  Five  of  us  can  get  through,  even 
if  we  don't  catch  up  with  the  emigrants." 


A  BIG  PROBLEM  21 

Again  they  walked  on  in  silence,  while  Sam 
seemed  to  be  thinking  over  the  suggestions  of 
the  younger  lads. 

It  was  true  he  had  been  in  the  Indian  coun- 
try with  a  trader  one  summer.  He  had  ac- 
quired a  fair  knowledge  of  the  Indian  sign 
language,  and  knew  something  of  Indian  ways 
and  life  on  the  plains,  but  he  had  never 
thought  of  being  responsible  for  the  safety  of 
the  party.  He  felt  that  if  he  were  to  travel 
all  alone,  he  might  be  willing  to  take  the 
chance. 

"I  do  not  think  we  can  catch  up  with  the 
emigrants, ' '  he  replied  after  some  time.  ' '  Of 
course,  they  cannot  travel  very  fast,  but  they 
have  been  on  the  trail  nearly  a  month,  and 
must  have  made  about  five  hundred  miles. 
They  are  now,  I  figure,  somewhere  on  the  up- 
per Platte,  some  five  hundred  miles  from 
here." 

"I  do  not  think  they  have  gone  that  far," 
Al  took  up  the  thought.  "They  travel  in 
wagons,  and  have  to  drive  about  five  thou- 
sand head  of  loose  stock;  and  you  know  cat- 
tle won't  travel  unless  you  drive  them." 

"We  can  catch  up  with  them,  Sam,"  Ben 


22      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

broke  in.  "Let  us  leave  the  wagons  and  the 
cows  here,  all  go  on  horseback  and  load  our 
stuff  on  pack  horses  as  the  traders  and  trap- 
pers do.  Then  we  can  start  early  every 
morning  and  travel  till  dark  every  day.  If 
we  do  that,  we  can  catch  up  with  them  by  the 
time  they  get  to  that  fort  on  the  Snake  River ; 
what's  the  name  of  it!" 

"Fort  Hall,"  Sam  answered. 

"Yes,  Fort  Hall.  Maybe  some  of  them  will 
rest  there  for  a  while,  for  the  women  will  be 
all  tired  out.  But  you  see  we  could  travel 
right  along  every  day." 

"Are  you  sure,  Sam,  you  could  find  the 
trail?"  asked  the  younger  and  more  timid 
Dick. 

"Of  course,  he  could,"  Ben  spoke  up  with- 
out waiting  for  Sam  to  reply.  '  *  You  think  we 
couldn't  find  the  trail  of  a  hundred  wagons'? 
Prince  can  do  it,  if  we  can't. " 

1 '  He  couldn  't  either, ' '  Dick  protested.  '  *  A 
dog  can't  smell  wagon  tracks." 

"Oh,  come  off,  Dick,"  Ben  blurted  out. 
"He  can  see  them,  can't  he?  Dick,  you'll 
never  be  a  great  Indian  fighter,  you  are  al- 
ways afraid  of  something. ' ' 


CHAPTER  HI 

SAM   IS   WORRIED 

THE  two  young  lads  finished  their  dinner, 
when  they  reached  the  cabin,  but  Sam  said 
he  was  not  hungry  any  more.  He  would  take 
his  gun  and  go  to  the  woods  with  Prince  to 
get  a  wild  turkey  for  Sunday,  for  this  was 
Saturday  and  the  camp  was  out  of  fresh 
ir  eat. 

Ben  and  Dick  wanted  to  go  along,  but  this 
time  the  kind-hearted  Sam  was  firm  in  his  re- 
fusal. 

"No,  you  can't  go,"  he  told  them  flatly. 
"You  haven't  done  a  thing  for  a  week  but 
chase  around  in  the  woods  with  the  dog. 
You  go  and  find  Joe  and  then  ride  out  on  the 
prairie  with  him  to  bring  the  cattle  into  the 
corral.  We  have  not  seen  them  for  three 
days.  The  first  thing  we  know,  some  In- 
dian will  steal  them  and  sell  them  for  a  jug 
of  whiskey.  Then  you  bring  the  cows  in  and 

23 


24      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

milk  them,  and  at  dark  you  have  some  sup- 
per ready,  for  Al  is  going  with  me  turkey- 
hunting.  ' ' 

"Are  we  going  to  Oregon?"  Ben  asked,  as 
if  Sam's  injunction  about  cattle  and  supper 
and  milking  had  made  no  impression  on  him. 

"You  youngsters  go  and  do  what  I  told 
you, ' '  Sam  answered  rather  severely.  * l  And 
if  you  don't  dry  up  about  Oregon,  I'll  drop 
you  in  the  cow  pond.  And  mind  you  have 
the  two  cows  milked  when  Al  and  I  come 
home.  If  you  don't,  you'll  get  switched. 
You  two  kids  are  the  laziest  pair  in  Kansas. 
When  Al  and  I  were  your  age  we  had  to  milk 
five  cows  mornings  and  evenings.  Now  get 
out  of  here  and  find  Joe.  He 's  one  of  a  kind 
with  you.  I  don't  see  why  Father  and  Steb- 
bins  loaded  us  up  with  him.  He's  no  earthly 
good.  Never  here  to  do  anything,  and  only  in 
the  way,  when  he  is  here." 

"Gosh!"  piped  up  Ben,  as  he  and  Dick 
trudged  down  the  road  to  Jack  Le  Mure's 
trading  post.  ' '  Sam  has  got  an  awful  grouch 
on.  I  bet  his  girl  has  gone  back  on  him. 

"Say,  Dick,  are  you  going  to  get  a  girl, 
when  you  get  as  big  as  Sam?  I  ain't.  Girls 


SAM  IS  WORRIED  25 

are  just  a  lot  of  bother,  and  every  little  while 
they  get  mad  at  a  fellow." 

Ben  and  Dick  found  Big  Joe  at  Le  Mure 's  in 
the  coils  of  one  of  his  long  stories.  When 
after  a  few  minutes  Joe's  yarn  showed  no 
sign  of  coming  to  an  end,  Ben  made  bold  to 
break  in. 

"Joe,"  he  said,  "you  had  better  come  and 
look  for  the  stock.  Sam  and  Al  are  pretty 
mad  at  us.  Sam  got  a  letter  from  Mark  Steb- 
bins,  saying  he  isn  't  going  with  us  to  Oregon. 
You  are  to  get  the  cattle  home  and  Dick  and 
I  are  to  milk  the  cows.  Really,  Sam  is  mad. 
He  said  we  were  three  of  a  kind.  You  had 
better  come  right  away.  Maybe,  we'll  all 
start  for  Oregon  Monday  or  Tuesday  with- 
out Mark  Stebbins." 

Sam  and  Al  in  the  meantime  had  each  taken 
a  gun  and  sauntered  slowly  through  the  hilly 
woods  just  west  of  Fort  Leavenworth.  Wild 
turkeys  were  no  longer  common  near  the  fort, 
but  a  good  hunter  might  still  find  a  few 
within  two  or  three  miles. 

"If  that  wonderful  dog  of  the  kids'  was 
any  kind  of  a  bird-dog,  we  would  be  pretty 
sure  of  our  dinner,  but  bird-tracks  are  too 


26       THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAKNING 

fine  for  his  nose.  When  it  comes  to  men  or 
animals,  he  is  right  there,"  remarked  Sam. 

"He  is  surely  no  bird-dog,"  admitted  Al. 
"I  think  he  is  really  a  fighting  dog.  I  didn't 
tell  you,  but  last  week  one  day,  he  nearly 
killed  Le  Mure's  big  Indian  dog,  Kaw.  For 
a  few  minutes  Prince  let  the  cur  sort  of  make 
faces  at  him ;  then  quick  as  a  flash,  he  had  him 
by  the  throat  so  the  cur  couldn't  even  yelp. 
If  I  had  not  pulled  him  off  by  main  force, 
he  would  have  killed  that  cur  on  the  spot.  I 
thought  at  first  he  had  broken  the  brute 's  neck 
the  way  he  shook  him  around.  You  should 
have  seen  Kaw  streak  it  for  home,  as  soon 
as  he  came  to! 

"Major  O'Toole  saw  the  fight  and  offered 
me  ten  dollars  for  him;  but  I  told  the  Major 
he  was  not  for  sale,  because  he  belonged  to 
our  small  brothers." 

"Lucky  for  you,"  Sam  laughed.  "You 
would  have  had  to  buy  him  back,  if  you  had 
sold  him. 

"I  guess  I  was  a  little  rough  with  the 
youngsters,  they  are  a  pretty  fine  pair,  all 
right." 

Late  in  the  afternoon  the  hunters  flushed 


SAM  IS  WORRIED  27 

a  turkey,  and  Prince,  after  the  bird  had 
alighted  in  a  hickory,  held  his  attention  un- 
til the  hunters  had  time  to  crawl  up  within 
range.  That  was  all  Prince  seemed  to  be 
able  to  learn  about  hunting  game-birds;  but 
the  trail  of  a  deer  he  had  been  known  to  fol- 
low all  day. 

When  the  hunters  had  secured  their  turkey, 
they  sat  down  on  a  log  to  rest. 

"I  don't  know  what  to  do,  Al,"  Sam  be- 
gan. "It  is  too  late  in  the  season  to  take 
any  wagon  and  stock  across  the  mountains. 
Then,  again,  I  do  not  relish  the  idea  of  cross- 
ing the  Indian  country  with  so  small  a  party, 
even  if  we  could  count  on  Joe.  He  is  big 
in  bulk  and  talk,  but  that's  all. 

"I  know,"  he  continued  after  a  while, 
"none  of  the  tribes  except  the  Blackfeet  are 
really  hostile  to  the  whites,  but  you  cannot 
trust  any  of  them.  Some  irresponsible  war 
party  or  horse-stealing  party  of  reckless 
young  bucks  is  likely  to  be  tempted  to  rob 
and  murder  a  small  party  of  travelers  or 
trappers  whenever  they  think  it  is  safe  to  do 
so. 

"If  we  do  go,  we  ought  to  sell  the  cows  and 


28      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

other  stock  and  buy  guns.  If  Indians  find 
you  prepared  to  fight,  they  are  generally  will- 
ing to  smoke  and  be  friendly.  I  learned  that 
much  about  Indian  ways  and  Indian  charac- 
ter." 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DECISION 

WHEN  the  hunters  arrived  in  camp,  their 
small  brothers,  for  once,  had  obeyed  orders. 
The  cows  were  milked,  the  horses  were  in  the 
corral,  and  supper  was  on  the  table. 

An  hour  later  Joe  returned  with  all  the 
mixed  stock,  except  one  big  steer,  but  as  that 
belonged  to  Joe  himself,  very  little  was  said 
about  the  matter.  However  Sam  and  Al 
agreed  that  hereafter  all  the  cattle  must  be 
brought  to  the  corral  every  evening. 

Young  men,  who  have  roamed  the  woods 
in  search  of  game  generally  sleep  soundly, 
but  Sam  tossed  restlessly  on  his  bed  of  corn- 
husks  for  the  greater  part  of  the  night.  And 
when  he  did  fall  asleep,  his  worried  and  ex- 
cited mind  saw  a  great  plain  covered  with  the 
tepees  of  Sioux,  Cheyennes,  and  Shoshones, 
and  while  he  was  trying  to  pass  them  unob- 
served, bands  of  Pawnees  and  Blackfeet 

29 


30      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

raised  the  warwhoop  in  his  rear  and  came  gal- 
loping at  him  with  lifted  tomahawks  and  hid- 
eous blackened  faces. 

When  he  sprang  out  of  bed  startled  and 
confused,  the  June  sun  was  shining  through 
the  windows,  and  the  cattle  were  bellowing 
in  the  corral. 

Although  the  sun  stood  three  hours  high, 
his  four  companions  were  still  soundly  asleep. 

"Wake  up,  wake  up,  you  bats,"  Sam  called 
to  them.  '  *  Some  day  a  cyclone  will  blow  you 
fellows  back  into  Illinois  and  I  believe  you 
wouldn't  wake  up  till  you  landed." 

When  cattle  and  horses  had  been  released 
and  the  five  companions  had  sat  down  to  their 
breakfast  of  bacon  and  corn  bread,  Sam's 
mind  was  made  up. 

"Boys,"  he  said  quietly,  "I  have  thought 
it  over  all  night.  We  can 't  hang  around  here 
and  just  kill  time  for  a  whole  year.  None  of 
us  could  stand  that.  The  chance  of  Mark's 
letters  ever  reaching  Oregon  is  pretty  slim, 
you  know,  and  our  fathers  and  mothers  would 
think  we  had  all  been  killed  and  scalped.  If 
you  feel  as  I  do,  we  start  for  Oregon  as  soon 
as  we  can  get  ready." 


THE  DECISION  31 

"Hurrah!"  cried  Al,  "that's  good  talk," 
while  Ben  and  Dick  jumped  up  and  began  to 
kiss  and  hug  Sam. 

' '  Look  out,  look  out,  you  imps. ' '  Sam  tried 
to  quiet  them,  after  they  had  broken  a  cup 
and  almost  spilled  the  bacon  on  the  floor. 
"You  had  better  go  and  kiss  Martha  good- 
by." 

"Ah,  you've  got  to  do  that,"  Ben  blurted 
out.  ' '  She 's  your  girl ;  we  know  it  all  right. 
She  asked  us  yesterday  if  you  were  coming 
to  the  dance  last  night  and  we  told  her  no,  you 
had  too  big  a  grouch  on. ' ' 

"Ben,  you  fresh  kid,  into  the  pond  you 
go!"  retorted  Sam,  "you  have  had  it  coming 
for  a  long  time."  But  when  he  had  carried 
the  screaming  and  sprawling  boy  half-way  to 
his  wet  destination,  he  let  him  slip  away,  say- 
ing that  the  Indians  would  cure  him  of  his 
freshness. 

Big  Joe  also  was  ready  to  go  to  Oregon,  al- 
though he  did  not  display  any  joy  at  the  pros- 
pect. 

From  that  moment  no  time  was  wasted  at 
the  Fort  Leavenworth  cabin.  "Wagons  and 
cattle  belonging  to  the  Howard  and  Hamilton 


32      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

f amilies  Sam  and  Al  sold  or  traded  for  horses, 
arms,  and  provisions;  while  the  horses  and 
cattle  belonging  to  Mark  Stebbins  were  turned 
over  to  Jack  Le  Mure  until  their  owner  would 
claim  them. 

Within  less  than  a  week  after  the  receipt 
of  the  letter  of  Mark  Stebbins  the  lads  were 
ready  to  start.  Each  of  them  rode  a  good 
saddle-horse,  their  things,  provisions,  and  a 
few  Indian  goods  were  loaded  on  six  pack- 
horses,  while  they  took  three  extra  horses 
for  emergencies,  and  the  dog  Prince  was  one 
of  the  party  that  left  Fort  Leavenworth  at 
daybreak  the  latter  part  of  June. 

Emigrants  to  Oregon  took  for  their  princi- 
pal provisions  about  one  hundred  pounds  of 
flour  and  sixty  pounds  of  bacon  to  a  man,  but 
Sam  Howard  and  his  party  felt  compelled 
to  travel  light  and  expected  to  add  largely  to 
their  provisions  by  hunting  as  soon  as  they 
struck  the  buffalo  country  on  the  Platte,  so 
they  took  less  than  half  of  these  rations  to 
a  man.  In  addition  to  the  two  staples  they 
added  to  their  packs  some  dried  fruit,  tea, 
coffee,  su£a,r,  salt,  and  beans,  together  with 
a  quantity  of  tobacco  and  an  assortment  of 


THE  DECISION  33 

goods  for  trading  with  the  Indians  and  for 
making  presents  to  those  whose  friendship 
they  might  wish  to  secure. 

In  the  matter  of  arms  and  ammunitions, 
Sam  had  followed  the  advice  of  the  best  free 
trappers  and  traders,  who  made  themselves 
respected  and  even  formidable  by  being  lib- 
erally supplied  with  the  best  of  firearms  and 
by  their  skill  and  boldness  in  using  them  in 
defense  of  their  lives  and  property. 

Each  one  was  supplied  with  a  good  rifle, 
two  pistols,  and  a  sheath-knife.  Two  double- 
barreled  shotguns  for  the  party,  were  also 
added  to  their  armament.  These  they  ex- 
pected to  use  for  securing  small  game,  in  case 
they  should  fail  to  find  enough  big  game. 
And  if  they  should  ever  have  to  fight  at  close 
quarters  these  guns  loaded  with  ball  and  buck- 
shot would  beat  off  any  small  party  of  hos- 
tile Indians. 

Thus  equipped  they  cast  a  last  farewell 
glance  over  the  wooded  hills  and  the  great 
river  that  rolled  its  gray,  muddy  waters  over 
shallows  and  sand-bars,  past  long  stretches 
of  bushy  willows  and  airy  groves  of  tall  cot- 
tonwoods. 


34      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Their  road  led  northwesterly  to  join  the 
trail  from  St.  Joseph  which  in  turn  joined  the 
Oregon  Trail  about  eight  miles  beyond  the 
crossing  of  the  Big  Blue  River,  a  tributary 
of  the  Kansas  River. 

On  the  second  evening  out  they  camped  on 
a  small  prairie  creek,  which  offered  good 
grass  and  water  for  their  horses  and  where 
small  clumps  of  timber  furnished  them  plenty 
of  fuel. 

Although  all  felt  a  little  stiff  and  tired 
from  being  ten  hours  in  the  saddle,  they  were 
in  high  spirits.  The  trail  had  been  fine. 
The  prairie  lay  spread  out  like  an  endless 
carpet  of  fresh  soft  green,  dotted  with  many 
kinds  of  midsummer  flowers.  White,  fluffy 
clouds  had  now  and  then  softened  the  glare 
of  the  sun  and  had  added  the  charm  of  va- 
riety to  the  deep  blue  sky  that  rose  from  a 
landscape  of  rolling,  flowery  prairie  and  wind- 
ing wooded  streams. 

The  travelers  estimated  that  they  had  cov- 
ered between  fifty  and  sixty  miles  since  leav- 
ing Fort  Leavenworth. 

It  was  still  early  in  the  afternoon,  when 
they  made  camp,  and  to  Ben  fell  by  lot  the 


THE  DECISION  35 

first  turn  of  herding  the  horses  till  supper- 
time. 

"This  is  our  first  plains'  camp,"  Sam  in- 
structed him.  "You  take  your  rifle  and  pis- 
tols. Keep  your  own  horse  saddled  and  be 
ready  to  mount  him  any  moment.  When  we 
signal  you  to  come  to  supper,  you  bring  the 
horses  in  and  we  picket  them  close  to  camp  for 
the  night.  And  mark  you  all,  boys :  the  one 
that  loses  a  horse  will  walk  the  trail  for  a 
week,  no  matter  how  many  blisters  he  may 
raise  on  his  feet.  Remember,  if  our  horses 
are  lost,  we  are  lost." 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   FIRST   INDIAN 

ALTHOUGH  Dick  had  not  been  detailed  for 
horse  duty,  he  went  with  Ben  to  look  after 
the  animals,  because  Sam  had  told  him  that 
he  was  not  wanted  in  camp  and  that  he  might 
as  well  learn  to  look  after  the  horses. 

" Don't  let  any  of  them  straggle  off  into  the 
brush,  but  keep  them  all  in  sight,  and  don 't  let 
them  spread  out  too  far";  these  were  Sam's 
final  instructions. 

The  boys  were  glad  to  be  out  of  the  saddle. 
They  stretched  themselves  on  the  grass  and 
watched  the  horses  slowly  graze  down  stream. 

It  was  the  time  of  day  when  birds  and  ani- 
mals become  active,  and  wooded  streams  on 
the  prairie  are  everywhere  favorite  places  for 
birds  and  animals. 

The  young  of  most  birds  had  already  left 
the  nest,  and  the  season,  when  woods  and 
prairie  rang  with  the  songs  of  many  kinds  of 
birds,  was  already  past.  But  a  quail  was 

36 


THE  FIRST  INDIAN  37 

calling  his  "Bob  White"  from  some  concealed 
perch ;  while  a  noisy,  big  fly-catcher  rolled  out 
his  wild  notes  from  the  broad  top  of  a  big  elm 
near  the  stream. 

On  the  sloping  prairie  the  gophers  were 
busy  running  to  and  fro  as  if  all  their  work 
had  to  be  done  in  a  great  hurry,  for  a  gopher 
in  the  open  lives  in  constant  fear  of  hawks 
and  is  fairly  safe  from  his  enemies  only  in  his 
underground  tunnels. 

On  a  knoll,  within  easy  rifle  range  Ben  dis- 
covered a  badger. 

"Look  at  that,  look  at  that!"  he  called  to 
Dick.  "See  him  throw  the  dirt  out." 
Prince,  who  of  course  had  gone  with  the  boys, 
had  taken  no  interest  in  birds  and  gophers, 
but  now  he  whined  excitedly  and  looked  at  the 
boys  as  if  asking  for  the  word  to  go  after  the 
badger. 

"No,  you  can't  go.  Lie  down,  Prince!" 
Ben  ordered.  *  *  Sam  says  you  '11  be  just  a  use- 
less cur  and  a  nuisance,  if  you  start  to  fighting 
and  running  every  creature  you  see. ' ' 

"Say,  Dick,"  Ben  began  after  a  minute, 
"I'd  like  to  give  that  badger  one  with  my 
rifle.  He  is  good  eating,  isn't  he?" 


38      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

"Don't  you  do  it,  Ben,"  Dick  warned  his 
impulsive  friend.  " Don't  you  remember 
that  Sam  told  us  all  only  yesterday  never  to 
fire  a  gun  while  on  horse  duty,  except  as  a 
danger  signal?" 

The  horses  had,  by  this  time  gone  farther 
down  stream,  and  the  boys  followed  them  over 
a  rise  in  the  prairie. 

From  the  ridge  the  boys  could  see  the  wind- 
ing Bourse  of  the  small  stream  for  several 
miles;  and  Dick  now  discovered  something 
which  made  Ben  forget  about  the  badger,  who 
was  still  at  work  on  his  knoll. 

A  wreath  of  smoke  arose  over  the  tree-tops 
about  half  a  mile  down  the  stream.  The 
boys  at  once  headed  the  horses  toward  camp, 
and  then  scouted  down  stream  on  foot.  They 
went  far  enough  to  make  sure  that  the  smoke 
came  from  an  Indian  camp  of  one  tepee. 

Soon  after  they  returned  to  the  horses,  the 
supper  signal  went  Tip  at  camp  and  the  two 
herders  were  not  slow  in  coming  to  camp. 

The  news  about  the  Indian  camp  seemed  to 
interest  Sam  and  Al  less  than  the  two  younger 
boys  had  expected. 

"Probably  some  Oto,  Missouri,  or  Shaw- 


THE  FIRST  INDIAN  39 

nee,"  remarked  Sam,  "who  is  taking  life  easy 
in  a  summer  camp  away  from  the  large,  noisy 
camps  of  his  friends.  But  it  shows  that  you 
never  know  where  you  will  run  into  Indians. 
It  would  not  surprise  me  if  we  should  have 
some  visitors  a  little  later." 

Ben  and  Dick  hoped  that  they  would,  and 
they  were  not  disappointed  in  their  wish ;  for 
about  an  hour  later,  a  tall,  manly-looking 
Indian  was  coming  up  creek  straight  for 
camp. 

Prince  became  uneasy  and  growled  as  soon 
as  he  became  aware  of  the  Indian 's  approach. 
To  him  as  to  some  white  men,  all  live  Indians 
were  bad  Indians. 

* '  Howdy !  Howdy ! ' '  the  Indian,  a  man  of 
about  sixty,  greeted  the  campers.  "Howdy, 
Young  Soldier,"  he  added  as  he  shook  hands 
with  Sam  and  looked  him  square  in  the  face. 

"How  are  you,  Moquah?"  Sam  replied 
heartily,  now  recognizing  the  Shawnee  chief, 
who  generally  made  his  summer  camp  on  Tur- 
key Creek,  and  who  had  become  Sam's  friend 
a  year  ago,  when  Sam  went  with  a  trader  up 
the  Platte  River. 

Moquah  knew  quite  a  number  of  words  of 


40      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

English,  but  he  was  also  a  good  sign- talker; 
and  Sam  had  been  compelled  to  pick  up  quite 
a  bit  of  sign  talk  as  he  had  sold  goods  and 
bought  fur  and  buffalo  robes  among  several 
tribes  whose  language  he  had  no  time  to 
learn. 

Very  soon  the  two  friends  were  having  a 
big  talk,  with  the  other  members  of  the  camp 
looking  on  and  listening. 

"Good  horses!"  said  the  chief,  looking  at 
the  animals  and  adding  in  signs,  "Good  buf- 
falo hunters,  good  war  horses,  run  fast." 

After  a  moment  of  silence  the  chief  made  a 
sign  with  both  hands,  one  passing  the  other 
in  front  of  him. 

' '  No, ' '  replied  Sam,  * '  no  trade.  Go  to  Ore- 
gon!" 

Then  the  chief  pointed  up  and  down  and  in 
various  directions  with  the  index  finger  of  his 
right  hand. 

1 1  He  wants  to  know  where  it  is, ' '  Sam  told 
his  friends,  and  in  reply  he  moved  his  right 
hand  in  a  curve  away  from  him  and  said, 
* '  Shining  Mountains. ' ' 

By  this  gesture  and  the  two  English  words 


THE  FIRST  INDIAN  41 

Moquah  understood  that  Oregon  was  a  place 
beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Then  the  chief  held  up  the  five  fingers  of  his 
right  hand,  cast  a  glance  around  at  all  the 
five  members  of  the  company,  and  asked: 
"More  men?" 

By  this  time  Dick  and  Ben  were  getting 
much  interested,  for  they  had  often  wondered 
how  one  could  talk  and  trade  with  Indians  by 
signs.  They  had  caught  the  chief's  meaning. 
He  asked  whether  they  had  more  than  five 
men. 

"No,"  replied  Sam.    "All  here." 

The  chief's  face  became  very  serious. 

' '  Bad ! "  He  spoke  earnestly.  * '  Very  bad. 
Get  killed.  All  killed. ' '  And  then  he  rapidly 
made  the  signs  for  Pawnees,  Arapahoes, 
Sioux,  Crows,  Cheyennes,  Shoshones,  and 
Blackfeet. 

"What  does  he  say?"  asked  Al. 

"He  tells  us,"  Sam  explained,  "of  all  the 
Indian  tribes  we  may  meet  on  our  way." 

Now  the  chief  raised  his  thumb  and  index 
finger  to  the  side  of  his  head,  and  made  the 
sign  for  thief  and  horses. 


42      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

"He  says,*'  Sam  interpreted:  " Pawnees 
big  thieves,  steal  your  horses." 

And  as  Moquah  continued  his  talk  in  signs, 
Sam  kept  on  translating  it : 

"  Crows  big  thieves,  steal  horses,  guns, 
blankets.  Steal  everything. 

"Shoshones  good  Indians.  Far  away,  in 
Shining  Mountains. 

"Blaekfeet" — and  here  the  chief  showed 
strong  disgust — "bad  Indians.  All  bad. 
Kill  white  men.  Go  to  war  all  the  time,  win- 
ter and  summer.  Steal  everything  you  have. 
Scalp  you.  Hold  big  dance  round  scalp- 
pole." 

After  expressing  his  opinion  of  the  Black- 
feet,  the  chief  seemed  to  rest  a  minute.  Then 
he  made  a  sign  of  chopping  or  cutting  off  with 
the  extended  palm  of  his  right  hand  with 
which  he  quickly  made  a  downward  motion 
several  times,  just  touching  the  extended 
palm  of  his  left  hand. 

"He  says  they  will  cut  our  heads  off,"  Ben 
blurted  out. 

"Ben,  keep  still,"  Sam  rebuked  the  for- 
ward lad.  "He  means  his  speech  i  cut  off; 
he  has  finished  his  talk." 


"GOOD   BLACK   SOUP,"    HE   REMARKED.       "HEAP   GOOD." — Page  43. 


THE  FIRST  INDIAN  43 

When  Al  and  Dick  laughed  at  Ben's  mis- 
take, Moquah  at  first  looked  offended,  but  as 
soon  as  Sam  had  explained  that  they  were 
laughing  at  Ben's  poor  guess  at  sign  talk,  he 
heartily  joined  in  the  laugh. 

Indians  have  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  and 
are  not  at  all  a  sad  and  morose  people. 
When  no  lost  warriors  are  mourned,  and 
there  is  no  sickness  or  hunger  in  camp,  they 
indulge  in  all  kinds  of  fun. 

There  was  not  much  talking  after  this. 
The  boys  treated  their  visitor  to  a  meal  of 
bacon,  coffee  and  sugar,  and  white  bread,  on 
which  he  made  a  big  feast.  In  those  days 
any  articles  of  white  man's  food  were  a  great 
luxury  to  an  Indian. 

Moquah  was  especially  pleased  with  the  big 
kettleful  of  sweet  coffee,  which  he  praised  in 
words,  which  sorely  taxed  Ben's  and  Ted's 
determination  not  to  laugh. 

1 '  Good  black  soup ! "  he  remarked.  ' '  Heap 
good,  big  heap  good!" 

When  he  arose  to  go,  Sam  made  him  a 
present  of  some  tobacco,  and  also  gave  him  a 
cupful  of  powder  for  which  he  had  expressed 
a  desire.  To  his  wife  and  three  daughters, 


44      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Sam  sent  a  small  bag  of  beads  and  some 
needles. 

When  he  had  left,  Sam  impressed  it  upon 
the  boys  that  they  must  never  laugh  at  any- 
thing an  Indian  does  and  says.  "If  you  do, 
he  will  never  talk  freely  to  you  again  and  will 
never  be  your  friend. '  ' 

"Why  couldn't  we  induce  Moquah  to  go 
with  us  as  far  as  Fort  Hall?"  Al  suggested. 

"Moquah  would  be  a  great  help  to  us," 
Sam  admitted, '  *  but  I  feel  sure  that  we  could 
not  induce  him  to  go. 

"An  Indian  is  very  much  attached  to  his 
family,  and  feels  the  duty  of  providing  for 
them.  The  chief  would  not  leave  his  family 
and  go  with  us  to  Fort  Hall;  and  if  he  did, 
it  would  be  more  dangerous  for  him  to  return 
alone,  than  for  us  to  go  without  him." 

"But  he  knows  Indian  ways  better  than  we 
do,"  Big  Joe  argued. 

"That  is  true  enough,"  agreed  Sam. 
"But  he  could  not  fight  any  harder  than  either 
of  us,  and  he  is  not  nearly  so  well  armed. 
I  am  not  going  to  ask  Moquah  or  any  other 
Indian  to  go  with  us.  If  any  of  you  are 
afraid  now  to  go  with  me,  you  can  still  return 


THE  FIRST  INDIAN  45 

to  Fort  Leavenworth.  I  told  you  there  just 
what  the  Shawnee  told  you  to-night.  Now,  if 
any  of  you  feel  scared,  we'll  just  go  ar  far 
as  the  Platte  to  hunt  buffalo  and  go  back 
home." 

"I  am  not  afraid,"  protested  Joe.  "I  am 
going,  if  the  rest  of  you  are.  Can 't  scare  me 
with  any  Blackf  eet. ' ' 

After  a  while  Sam  said  it  was  time  to  roll 
in. 

"I  do  not  think  we  need  to  stand  guard 
to-night,"  he  added.  "That  fool  dog  will 
wake  us  up  if  anything  goes  wrong." 

"Sam,  he  isn't  a  fool  if  he  can  stand 
guard,"  Ben  objected.  "He  couldn't  know 
that  Moquah  was  your  friend. '  > 

"Well,  I  hope,"  Sam  replied  laughing,  "he 
will  not  get  us  into  trouble  by  starting  to  chew 
up  friendly  Indians.  Everybody  go  to  sleep 
now.  We  have  to  reel  off  another  thirty 
miles  to-morrow.  Eemember  it  is  two  thou- 
sand miles  to  Fort  Vancouver  in  Oregon." 


CHAPTEE  VI 

THE    WARNING 

PRINCE  acquitted  himself  well  of  his  duty 
as  camp  guard.  He  was  naturally  not  a 
noisy,  barking  cur,  but  a  big,  long-legged  dog, 
whose  head  and  muzzle  suggested  a  bulldog, 
but  his  long  legs  and  powerful,  large  body 
seemed  to  make  him  a  relative  of  bloodhounds 
and  big  Danes.  He  did  not  bark  freely  at 
strangers,  but  the  loudness  of  his  growl  and 
a  few  explosive  whoofs  were  a  sure  index  to 
the  degree  of  his  dislike  for  strange  humans, 
dogs  or  other  creatures. 

If  a  hungry  coyote  prowled  too  close  to 
camp  he  rushed  at  the  intruder  with  a  short 
contemptuous  snarl.  Only  once  one  of  these 
wary,  wild  dogs  had  tried  a  contest  with  the 
big  brindled  Dane.  With  a  quickness  one 
would  not  credit  to  a  dog  so  large  and 
heavy,  Prince  had  secured  a  death  grip  on 
the  coyote's  neck,  shook  him  as  if  he  were 

46 


THE  WARNING  47 

a  cat  or  woodchuck,  and  dropped  him  dead. 

The  big  gray  wolves  he  did  not  attack,  but 
announced  their  presence  by  a  few  barks  and 
short  dashes  toward  them.  Both  Sam  and 
his  former  owner,  a  retired  Mountain  trap- 
per, had  always  discouraged  him  from  a  con- 
test with  a  wolf.  They  were  too  much 
attached  to  him  and  he  was  too  valuable  a 
dog  to  have  him  maimed  or  killed  by  a  savage 
wolf. 

As  to  other  dogs,  he  treated  them  all  with 
a  haughty  contempt.  If  one  was  bent  on 
starting  a  fight,  there  was  likely  to  be  a  dead 
dog,  unless  his  master  interfered.  His  for- 
mer owner  assured  Sam  that  Prince  had 
killed  nine  dogs  in  so  many  fair  fights. 

During  the  night  on  Turkey  Creek,  Prince 
made  several  rushes  at  impertinent  coyotes, 
but  nothing  more  serious  disturbed  the  peace 
of  the  camp. 

Before  the  party  resumed  their  journey  in 
the  morning,  Moquah  came  again  to  camp, 
looking  quite  troubled. 

"You  must  not  go,"  he  said  to  Sam,  after 
he  had  smoked  for  a  time  in  silence,  while 
the  other  four  men  were  putting  packs  and 


48      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

saddles  on  the  horses,  "you  have  only  three 
men.  The  Blackfeet  are  many,  many;  like 
snowflakes  in  winter.  They  will  rub  you 
out."  The  last  sentence  he  expressed  in  sign 
by  rubbing  the  palm  of  his  right  hand  over 
the  back  of  the  left  hand. 

Steve  saw  that  the  chief  was  seriously 
alarmed  at  the  dangers  his  party  would  have 
to  face. 

"I  am  grateful,"  he  replied,  "that  Moquah 
comes  to  speak  to  his  white  son.  But  we 
are  not  foolish  boys,  we  have  good  guns. 
See,  my  father,"  and  he  drew  one  of  Colt's 
six-shooters  from  his  holster,  "this  is  our  big 
medicine.  We  all  have  two  like  that.  Even 
my  small  brothers  have  them,  and  will  learn 
to  use  them  before  we  meet  Pawnees  or 
Crows  or  Blackfeet." 

"Good  medicine,  a  gun  that  shoots  six 
times,"  the  old  man  replied.  "White  men 
are  brave,  but  you  are  not  enough.  The  Paw- 
nees are  many,  the  Crows  are  many,  the 
Blackfeet  are  many.  They  are  in  the  moun- 
tains, they  are  on  the  plains.  They  rise  from 
the  grass  like  the  birds,  they  creep  through 
the  dark  night  like  the  coyotes.  Your  eye 


THE  WARNING  49 

says  that  they  are  not  there,  but  their  arrow 
will  find  you.  They  are  fierce  like  the  gray 
wolves,  they  will  rub  you  out.  I  am  done." 

The  chief  had  spoken  in  the  impressive 
manner  of  combining  his  broken  English  with 
simple,  impressive  signs. 

Sam  felt  he  must  tell  his  friend  why  they 
could  not  turn  back. 

"Your  tongue  is  nol  double,  my  father," 
he  began  "you  speak  the  truth,  but  we  must 
go.  Our  fathers  and  mothers  and  little 
brothers  have  already  gone  in  a  big  canoe 
over  the  big  water.  They  will  mourn  us  as 
dead,  if  we  wait  till  the  snow  has  melted 
again.  We  must  go  now." 

Sam  was  not  sure  that  Moquah  understood 
what  he  meant  by  "big  water"  and  "big 
canoe, ' '  for  Moquah  was  silent  and  seemed  to 
be  inwardly  struggling  with  some  resolution. 

"My  son,"  he  said  after  a  few  minutes, 
handing  his  pipe  to  Sam,  "smoke  with  me. 
You  must  go  beyond  the  Shining  Mountains 
to  the  camp  of  your  father.  I  do  not  know 
why  white  men  travel  so  far.  Perhaps  they 
love  not  the  country  where  they  were  boys 
as  all  the  Indians  do.  I  shall  give  you  my 


50      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

medicine.  It  is  good  medicine.  No  white 
man  has  seen  it.  I  do  not  need  it.  The 
Shawnees  no  longer  make  war." 

Then  he  opened  his  hunting-bag  and  un- 
folded a  piece  of  deerskin,  from  which  he 
took  a  tooth,  an  ear,  and  a  foot  of  a  big  wolf. 

1  'Take  these,"  he  said.  "They  will  make 
your  heart  strong,  your  feet  swift,  and  your 
ears  sharp.  T  have  carried  them  many  win- 
ters. They  have  helped  me  to  tcJie  scalps 
from  the  brave  Comanches  and  the  thieving 
Pawnees.  You  do  not  laugh  at  the  Indians, 
so  I  give  you  my  strong  medicine." 

Then  he  shook  hands  with  Sam  and  slowly 
walked  down  the  creek  to  his  own  camp. 

"Sam,  you  do  not  believe  in  any  Indian 
medicine  ? ' '  asked  Al,  when  the  boys  had  been 
told  the  gist  of  his  talk  with  Moquah. 

"No,  I  do  not  believe  in  it,"  Sam  admitted, 
"but  I  shall  carry  the  medicine  with  me  as 
I  promised  and  not  show  it  to  any  one,  till  we 
get  to  Oregon." 

"Can't  we  see  it  either?"  asked  Ben. 

"Not  till  we  reach  Oregon.  Now  get  on 
your  horses,  and  let  us  travel.  The  sun  is 
already  an  hour  high." 


CHAPTER  VII 

GOOD   NEWS.   AND  BAD 

THE  small  caravan  moved  quietly  along, 
for  each  of  the  three  men  was  busy  turning 
over  in  his  own  mind,  the  warning  of  the 
old  Shawnee.  Sam,  especially,  was  much 
troubled,  because  he  felt  that  he  had  made 
himself  responsible  for  the  lives  of  his  two 
cousins  and  his  younger  brother. 

Was  the  danger  as  great  as  Moquah  saw  it  ? 
Were  not  all  the  plains  tribes,  except  the 
Blackfeet,  much  more  troublesome  to  one  an- 
other than  they  were  to  white  men?  The 
Blackfeet,  he  knew  had  always  been  avowed 
enemies  of  the  whites.  But  he  did  not  need 
to  take  his  party  through  the  Blackfeet  coun- 
try. The  trail  ran  far  to  the  south  of  this 
hostile  tribe.  Of  course,  he  knew  fhat  all  of 
the  plains  Indians,  being  well  provided  with 
horses,  often  sent  horse-stealing  parties  and 
war  parties  as  far  as  two  hundred  miles  from 
their  camps.  If  he  had  only  two  or  three 

51 


52       THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

more  men,  so  they  could  stand  guard  at  night 
without  wearing  themselves  out  with  loss  of 
sleep,  he  would  not  be  afraid  of  traveling 
from  the  Missouri  to  Oregon  and  back  again ; 
because  he  knew  that  there  was  not  a  war 
party  from  Mexico  to  Canada  that  was  armed 
half  so  well  as  his  party. 

But  then  again  it  flashed  across  his  mind: 
What  could  three  men  and  two  boys  do 
against  a  howling  mob  of  a  hundred  savages, 
all  mad  with  the  lust  for  plunder  and  the 
savage  desire  for  fame  as  warriors'?  He  al- 
most wished  now  that  Mark  Stebbins  had  told 
him  right  out  not  to  make  the  trip  without 
him. 

The  more  he  thought  about  it,  the  more  he 
felt  that  he  had  made  a  mess  of  it. 

If  they  went  back,  the  whole  Fort  would 
laugh  at  them.  If  they  went  ahead  and  some 
of  them  got  killed,  he  would  always  feel  that 
his  was  the  blame. 

Ben  ana  Dick  noticed  that  Sam  was  not  in 
his  usual  cheerful  mood. 

"I  bet,"  Ben  whispered,  "he's  got  Martha 
on  his  mind.  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  some 
day  he'll  want  to  go  clear  back  to  Fort 


GOOD  NEWS  AND  BAD  53 

Leavenworth  to  get  her.  Well,  any  girl 
ought  to  be  mighty  glad  to  go  with  Sam  to 
Oregon." 

"Oh,  nonsense,"  Dick  argued.  "He 
doesn't  have  to  go  back  to  Fort  Leavenworth. 
There'll  be  lots  of  girls  in  Oregon." 

"Dick,  you  are  just  a  fool  kid.  You  don't 
know  anything,"  Ben  flashed  at  him.  "Do 
you  suppose  any  girl  in  Oregon  is  good 
enough  for  Sam?  Not  by  a  long  sight,  I  say. 

"I  think  I'll  just  ask  him  what's  the 
matter. ' ' 

"You  had  better  not,"  Dick  cautioned. 
"He's  got  lots  to  think  of  besides  Martha. 
Maybe  he  is  thinking  about  the  Indians  Mo- 
quah  said  we'd  have  trouble  with." 

"No,"  objected  Ben,  "Sam  is  not  afraid  of 
Indians.  He  knows  all  about  them  and  can 
talk  to  them  with  his  fingers.  I'm  not  afraid 
to  go  with  Sam,  but  I  wouldn't  go  with  Joe, 
although  he  is  big  and  strong." 

About  noon  they  passed  a  camp  of  Otos, 
who  wanted  them  to  stop  and  trade,  but  when 
Sam  made  them  understand  that  he  was  in 
a  hurry  to  reach  the  buffalo  country  they  did 
not  molest  them. 


54      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

When  they  were  out  of  sight  of  the  camp 
of  the  Otos,  they  stopped  *'or  about  an  hour 
to  water  and  rest  their  horses,  and  eat  a  light 
lunch. 

In  the  evening  they  again  camped  early. 
After  all  had  enjoyed  a  swim  in  a  deep  hole 
in  the  creek  they  divided  the  work  for  the 
evening.  Al  and  Joe  arranged  the  packs  and 
made  supper,  the  two  small  boys  looked  after 
the  horses,  and  Sam  scouted  up  and  down  the 
creek  for  a  way  in  quest  of  deer  or  turkeys, 
and  on  the  lookout  for  Indians;  although  he 
did  not  expect  any  hostile  Reds  before  strik- 
ing the  Platte. 

Two  turkeys  were  the  result  of  Sam's  hunt. 

"There,"  he  remarked  as  he  dropped  the 
birds  near  the  fire,  "you  fellows  destroy 
bacon  like  so  many  wolves.  If  we  don 't  start 
right  in  to  get  some  game,  we  shall  have  to 
eat  our  horses  when  we  reach  the  moun- 
tains." 

As  Sam  had  not  found  any  signs  of  Indians, 
the  boys  again  turned  guarding  the  camp  over 
to  Prince.  Ben  threw  a  piece  of  canvas  on 
the  ground  near  the  horses  and  said: 
"Watch  them,  Prince!" 


GOOD  NEWS  AND  BAD  55 

Once  during  the  night  Sam,  who  was  the 
lightest  sleeper,  heard  the  dog  growl  angrily, 
but  he  thought  that  one  of  the  coyotes  that 
had  been  yapping  and  howling  near  camp  had 
come  too  close  to  suit  Prince,  so  hearing  the 
horses  move  about  quietly,  where  they  had 
been  picketed,  he  turned  around  and  went  to 
sleep  again. 

In  the  morning,  however,  the  boys  learned 
that  Prince  had  not  growled  at  a  sneaking 
coyote,  but  at  a  man,  at  one  of  their  own 
number.  Big  Joe  was  gone,  and  a  slab  of 
bacon,  a  small  bag  of  flour,  and  a  frying-pan 
were  also  missing. 

Now  Sam  knew  why  Prince  had  been  growl- 
ing. Joe  had,  of  course,  intended  to  take  at 
least  one  of  the  horses.  But  to  this  Prince 
had  objected,  and  rather  than  alarm  the  camp, 
Joe  had  deserted  on  foot. 

"Well,"  commented  Al,  "I  am  glad  he  is 
gone,  boys.  He  didn't  fit  in  and  would  have 
been  no  help  in  case  we  should  run  into  any 
tight  places.  I  think  he  is  a  good  riddance. " 

"Hang  his  big  yellow  hide,"  muttered  Sam. 
"Now  we  have  to  go  it  alone  or  turn  back  and 
wait  for  Mark  Stebbins." 


56      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

"If  you  will  lead  us,  we  will  stand  by  you," 
all  three  of  the  boys  replied  at  once.  "We 
don't  want  to  turn  back  and  wait  a  whole 
year.'* 

Sam  was  willing  to  take  the  risk  as  far  as 
he  himself  was  concerned,  but  he  said  before 
he  made  up  his  mind  for  good  he  wanted  to 
learn  the  news  about  the  emigrants  and  the 
behavior  of  the  Indians  when  they  struck 
the  real  Oregon  Trail  near  the  crossing  of 
the  Big  Blue  Eiver  in  the  present  state  of 
Nebraska. 

When  they  reached  this  point,  a  few  days 
later,  they  made  camp  near  the  shack  of  old 
Josiah  Smith,  a  retired  mountaineer,  who 
lived  at  this  place  during  the  summer  and 
spent  the  winter  at  Independence  or  West- 
port. 

Smith  told  them  that  the  emigrants  had 
crossed  the  Kansas  Eiver  about  June  first 
and  had  passed  his  place  a  few  days  later. 
They  had  divided  into  two  parties,  because 
the  crowd  was  too  large  to  travel  in  one  party. 
He  thought  they  must  have  reached  the  moun- 
tains by  this  time. 

The  Indians,  he  said,  had  not  been  trouble- 


GOOD  NEWS  AND  BAD  57 

some.  The  emigrants  had  not  been  attacked ; 
they  might  have  had  some  cattle  stolen,  that 
was  all. 

11  So  you  boys  are  going  it  alone,  all  the 
way  to  Oregon,"  he  remarked,  when  told  of 
the  plan  of  the  party.  "It's  pretty  risky 
for  a  small  bunch  like  your'n.  But  if  you're 
lucky  and  wise,  you  may  make  it. 

"Now,  let  me  tell  you,"  he  continued,  after 
looking  at  the  horses  and  the  guns  of  the 
party.  "Don't  let  a  bunch  of  them  crowd 
into  your  camp.  Don't  let  more  than  one  or 
two  come  near  you.  That's  one  golden  rule 
in  the  Indian  country. 

'  *  The  next  one  is :  Don 't  start  a  fight  with 
them.  Let  'em  talk  and  threaten,  but  keep 
cool.  Let  'em  call  you  dogs  or  cowards. 
That's  Indian  brag.  They  won't  fight,  unless 
they  have  a  great  advantage  of  you.  If  they 
know  that  some  of  them  will  surely  be  killed, 
they  will  not  start  anything.  But  if  you  have 
killed  or  wounded  one  of  them,  they  become 
like  wolves  that  have  smelled  blood.  And, 
unless  you  get  out  of  the  country  mighty 
quick,  they  will  dog  your  trail  day  and  night 
till  they  get  you. 


58      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

"Keep  a  sharp  lookout.  If  you  spy  any 
big  camps,  steer  shy  of  them.  Travel  after 
dark,  leave  the  trail.  Don 't  camp  with  them. 
Your  horses  and  your  packs  would  look 
awfully  tempting  to  them.  Give  'em  a  wide 
berth,  I  say,  lads." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ON   THE   LONG   TRAIL 

AFTER  a  good  night's  sleep,  Sam  had  made 
up  his  mind. 

"If  you  are  willing  to  take  chances  with 
me,  I  shall  try  my  level  best  to  take  yon 
through.  It's  a  long  trail,  and  God  only 
knows  what  dangers  and  hardships  we  may 
meet.  It  will  have  to  be  one  for  all,  and  all 
for  one,"  the  young  man  announced  his  de- 
cision. " What  do  you  say,  boys?  Do  we  go 
ahead  or  do  we  go  back?" 

"Go  ahead !"  all  three  cried  with  one  voice. 

"Sam,"  Al  added,  as  he  shook  the 
shoulders  of  his  friend,  "you  know  we  would 
go  with  you  to  China  or  any  place  on  earth." 

When  the  two  smaller  boys  began  to  shout 
and  dance  like  wild  Indians,  then  even  the 
dignified  Prince  gave  way  to  the  excitement 
by  jumping  with  his  forefeet  on  Ben's 
shoulders  and  barking  in  his  face. 

59 


60      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

The  lads  were  in  high  spirits,  when  shortly 
after  sunrise  they  left  their  camp  on  the  Big 
Blue. 

In  about  two  hours  they  came  to  the  junc- 
tion of  the  trail  from  St.  Joseph,  on  which 
they  had  been  traveling,  with  the  well  marked 
Oregon  Trail,  which  the  emigrants  had  taken 
from  Independence.  With  lusty  shouts  they 
fell  into  the  paths,  which  a  hundred  wagons 
and  several  thousand  head  of  stock  had  cut 
into  the  wild  prairie  a  month  before. 

On  both  sides  of  the  trail,  the  grass  had 
been  cut  to  the  roots  by  the  hungry  herds  of 
cattle  and  horses.  But  the  big  train  had 
passed  a  month  ago;  and  several  heavy 
showers  had  watered  the  prairie  since  that 
time,  so  that  the  grass  had  come  out  green  and 
fresh.  There  would  be  no  dearth  of  feed  for 
their  horses.  All  they  had  to  see  to  was  to 
give  their  animals  time  enough  to  graze  and 
not  travel  so  hard  as  to  make  them  footsore. 
But  as  all  the  riders  were  light  in  weight, 
the  packs  small,  and  three  horses  free  of  any 
load,  they  expected  no  difficulties  on  account 
of  their  animals  giving  out. 

Gradually  the  aspect  of  the  country  was 


ON  THE  LONG  TRAIL  61 

changing.  The  grass  was  of  a  different  kind 
and  was  much  shorter  than  it  had  been  farther 
east.  The  creeks  were  few  and  small  with 
little  or  no  water,  and  the  big  walnuts,  hick- 
ories, hackberries,  and  oaks  had  given  place 
to  a  scrubby  growth  of  willows,  cottonwoods, 
and  ash,  but  as  yet  there  was  no  lack  of 
shelter,  fuel,  or  water,  although  the  rainy 
season  was  evidently  past. 

Sam  had  agreed  to  act  as  the  scout  and 
hunter  of  the  expedition,  and  while  the  other 
boys  were  preparing  the  noon  lunch  and 
watering  the  horses,  they  heard  him  fire  a 
shot  in  a  clump  of  small  ash  and  wild  plum- 
trees. 

"What  did  you  get?"  the  boys  asked,  when 
he  returned  to  camp  soon  after. 

"Guess!"    Sam  whetted  their  curiosity. 

"It  was  not  a  turkey,"  replied  Al,  "for 
you  would  have  brought  him  along.  Maybe 
you  missed." 

"No,  I  got  my  game,"  Sam  laughed. 

"A  deer  or  antelope,"  Dick  suggested. 

"No,  better  than  that." 

"A  buffalo  or  an  elk,"  Ben  guessed. 

"No,  I  know!"  Dick  cried,  "a  bear!" 


62      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

"Better  than  that,"  Sam  said  again. 
"You  couldn't  guess  it.  I  killed  a  fat  year- 
ling steer.  To-night,  boys,  we'll  have  the 
finest  beef  roast  you  ever  ate. ' ' 

"A  steer?"  asked  Al.  "How  does  a  fat 
steer  happen  to  be  on  this  creek?" 

"That  is  easily  explained,"  Sam  answered. 
"An  old  cow  thought  that  grove  was  good 
enough  for  herself  and  her  calves  and  she 
didn't  care  to  walk  all  the  way  to  Oregon. 
The  men  missed  her  in  the  morning  round-up, 
and  she  stayed  here  with  her  small  calf  and 
the  yearling.  The  little  fellow  is  as  fat  and 
sleek  as  a  pig  and  as  wild  as  a  deer.  I  did 
not  like  to  kill  him,  and  I  think  the  yearling 
will  keep  us  in  meat  till  we  reach  the  buf- 
faloes. The  way  you  fellows  begin  to  eat,  a 
calf  would  last  us  about  two  days;  and  we 
must  keep  traveling  and  not  waste  any  time 
hunting." 

"But  what  will  become  of  the  cow  and  the 
calf?  Won't  the  wolves  eat  them?"  asked 
Dick. 

' '  No,  the  old  cow  will  beat  off  the  wolves  all 
right.  You  should  have  seen  her  go  for  me 
when  I  approached  the  calf.  Some  Indians 


ON  THE  LONG  TRAIL  63 

will  get  her,  or  more  likely  old  Smith  will 
come  along  and  add  her  to  his  herd.  You 
noticed  he  had  quite  a  bunch  of  cattle.  I 
fancy  he  just  found  a  good  many  of  them. 
Others  he  bought  or  traded  from  the  emi- 
grants. They  were  animals  that  had  become 
lame  and  could  not  keep  up  with  the  train. 
In  the  fall  they  will  all  be  fat  and  he  will  drive 
them  to  Independence  and  sell  them  for  a 
good  price." 

"Well,  that's  a  new  game,"  remarked  Al. 

"And  a  good  game  for  Smith,"  added  Sam. 
"I  know  of  one  old  fellow  away  out  on  the 
Santa  Fe  Trail,  who  buys  all  the  lame  mules 
and  oxen  that  reach  his  ranch,  and  when  they 
have  recovered  he  sells  them  at  a  good  profit 
to  other  trains  in  need  of  more  animals.  You 
see,  you  don't  have  to  go  to  the  Pacific  coast 
to  find  a  good  business." 

'  *  Oh,  but  I  wouldn  't  stick  around  here  and 
buy  all  kinds  of  lame  critters.  I  want  to  go 
to  Oregon,"  Ben  asserted. 

In  the  afternoon  they  met  a  small  party  of 
Indians,  and  before  any  one  could  interfere, 
one  of  the  Indian  dogs  had  challenged  Prince 
to  a  fight  with  the  result  that  he  was  now 


64       THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

lying  on  his  side  and  kicking  his  last  kicks. 

The  leader  of  the  party,  an  old  man,  was 
frankly  displeased  at  this  outcome. 

1  'Bad  dog,"  he  muttered,  pointing  to 
Prince. 

"He  good  dog,"  pointing  to  his  own  dead 
cur.  "He  pull  travois.  He  find  deer.  You 
pay  him." 

Here  was  a  sudden  dilemma.  "Ben,  get  a 
hold  of  that  fool  dog  of  yours, ' '  ordered  Sam 
gruffly.  * '  He  '11  gat  us  into  more  trouble. ' ' 

Ben  jumped  off,  seized  the  growling  and 
snarling  Prince  by  the  ears,  while  half  a  dozen 
Indian  dogs  of  all  colors  yapped  and  yelped 
and  danced  around  him. 

"You  pay  him!"  the  old  Indian  repeated 
angrily. 

"Hang  the  beast!"  Sam  remarked  to  Al. 
"I  suppose  that's  what  we  shall  have  to  do. 
A  dead  dog  is  not  worth  fighting  or  fussing 
about."  So  he  opened  a  pack  and  gave  the 
old  man  a  plug  of  tobacco  for  himself  and  a 
yard  of  red  calico  for  his  squaw. 

With  this  indemnity  the  old  man  was  well 
pleased  and  at  once  changed  his  manner. 

"You  want  more  dog  fight?"  he   asked 


ON  THE  LONG  TRAIL  65 

with  a  grin.    " Fight  him  all.     Same  price." 

' '  No  sir, ' '  replied  Sam  curtly,  not  appreci- 
ating the  situation.  "Get  along  with  your 
curs. ' ' 

"Ben,  take  Prince  away  or  I'll  sell  him  to 
the  Indians. ' ' 

When  the  boys  were  on  their  way  again,  all 
laughed  except  Sam. 

"Sam,"  Al  began  to  joke,  "that  old 
Wrinkleface  would  have  been  mighty  well 
pleased  with  one  good  bite  of  tobacco." 

"Yes,  you  giggling  kids!  Why  didn't  one 
of  you  bite  off  a  piece  for  him.  You  were  all 
mighty  glad  to  let  me  settle  the  trouble." 

"Well,  you  are  the  boss.  Aren't  you!" 
Ben  chirped  in. 

"All  right,  Ben,  I  guess  I  am,"  retorted 
Sam.  *  *  Now  you  look  out  for  your  blooming 
pup.  The  next  Indian  is  likely  to  want  one 
of  our  horses  for  a  dead  dog.  If  Prince  does 
any  more  damage,  you  pay  for  it,  or  I  sell 
him." 

"If  you  sell  Prince  to  the  Indians,"  Ben 
replied  angrily,  * '  Dick  and  I  shall  go  with  the 
Indians. ' ' 

"That  would  be  fun,  Little  Crosspatch," 


66      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Sam  laughed.  "Then  Al  and  I  would  get  to 
Oregon  in  two  weeks,  if  we  didn't  have  to 
bother  with  you  kids  and  your  dog." 

"All  right,  he  is  my  dog  now.  You  said 
so  yourself,  so  you  can't  sell  him,"  was  Ben's 
quick  reply. 


CHAPTER  IX 

AJJONG   THE   PIATTE 

PBINCE  had  no  more  chances  to  make 
trouble  that  day,  except  that  he  broke  away 
to  chase  an  antelope.  But  the  game  left  him 
so  far  behind  that  very  soon  he  returned 
rather  crestfallen.  He  had  learned  that  an 
antelope  was  not  built  to  be  caught  by  a  dog. 

In  the  evening  the  lads  had  a  feast  on  fresh, 
fat  beef,  of  which  Al  had  roasted  two  large 
pieces  on  a  green  pole  over  a  hot  fire  of 
buffalo  chips,  for  wood  was  scarce  at  this 
camp. 

There  had  been  no  meatless  days  in  Sam's 
camp;  on  the  other  hand,  breadless  meals 
were  common.  However,  as  there  was  no 
limit  on  the  amount  of  fat  meat,  the  boys  did 
not  suffer  from  this  kind  of  diet.  Had  the 
meat  been  lean,  they  would  have  felt  starved 
in  spite  of  eating  large  quantities  of  it. 

Dick  and  Ben  understood  now  that  Sam 

67 


68      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

had  been  right  when  he  told  them  that  a  small 
party  would  have  a  much  better  chance  to 
live  on  the  country,  that  is  on  game,  than  a 
large  party. 

A  small  party,  which  can  travel  quietly 
without  stringing  out  can  get  within  range  of 
game,  when  a  large  party  by  its  noise  and 
numbers  will  scare  the  game  out  of  the  coun- 
try. This  principle  was  so  well  known  to  the 
early  explorers  of  the  plains  and  the  moun- 
tains that  fairly  large  parties,  like  those  of 
Lewis  and  Clark,  always  sent  one  or  two  hunt- 
ers ahead  of  the  main  body. 

The  boys  also  appreciated  that  a  small 
party  on  horseback  is  not  nearly  so  likely  to 
be  delayed  by  all  kinds  of  accidents. 

In  the  ford  of  the  Big  Blue  they  had  found 
a  wagon,  upside  down,  with  two  wheels  and 
one  axle  broken  beyond  repair.  This  acci- 
dent had  probably  delayed  all  the  wagons 
following,  at  least  an  hour.  Broken  wheels, 
abandoned  chests  and  boxes,  the  bones  of 
horses  and  cattle,  picked  clean  by  wolves  and 
coyotes  marked  the  trail  here  and  there,  and 
on  a  low  ridge,  miles  away  from  any  other 
landmark,  they  passed  a  lone  grave  marked 


ALONG  THE  PLATTE  69 

with  a  rude  wooden  cross.  The  mound  of 
earth  was  covered  with  stones  to  keep  the 
coyotes  from  digging  into  it. 

In  silence  and  with  bowed  heads  the  four 
youths  passed  the  lonely  spot.  Men,  women, 
and  children,  who  crossed  the  wild  plains  and 
mountains  in  those  days,  might  be  laid  to  rest 
in  a  grave  which  no  friend  or  member  of  the 
family  would  ever  be  able  to  visit  again. 

Some  miles  beyond  the  lone  grave  a  range 
of  low  glistening  sand-hills  with  a  scattered 
vegetation  appeared  on  the  horizon. 

Sam  took  out  his  spy-glass  and  examined 
them  carefully.  When  he  said  something  to 
Al  about  those  hills  being  a  good  hiding-place 
for  Indians,  Ben  slipped  out  of  his  saddle  and 
tied  his  picket-rope  to  the  dog.  Prince  did 
not  enjoy  traveling  in  this  way,  for  he 
dropped  his  tail  and  walked  along  as  if  very 
much  ashamed  and  depressed. 

The  lads  scouted  carefully  up  to  and 
through  these  hills,  known  at  that  time  as  the 
Coasts  of  the  Platte,  but  they  could  discover 
no  indication  of  men  or  animals. 

When  they  had  passed  through  these  low 
dunes  of  sand  which  the  northwest  wind  had 


70      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

blown  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  broad  chan- 
nel of  the  river,  they  came  into  full  view  of 
the  Platte,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  rivers 
of  the  plains. 

Several  channels  in  a  sort  of  network 
threaded  their  way  with  a  rapid  current  over 
an  expanse  of  sand-bars,  about  a  mile  wide. 
Patches  of  willow  and  other  bushes  as  well 
as  green  grasses  and  rushes  relieved  the  eye 
from  the  monotony  of  sand-bars;  while 
bleached  trunks,  stumps,  and  branches  of 
driftwood  showed  that  at  times  of  high  water 
the  Platte  tried  to  emulate  the  Mississippi 
and  be  a  real  river.  But  in  the  yielding  and 
shifting  sand  of  its  bed  it  had  never  been 
able  to  cut  a  deep  channel. 

For  over  a  hundred  miles  the  trail  now  fol- 
lowed the  broad  valley  of  the  Platte  almost 
straight  west. 

The  boys  missed  the  picturesque  curves 
and  high  wooded  hills  of  the  Mississippi  and 
Missouri.  The  sandy  flat,  showing  the  ex- 
panse of  high  water  ran  as  straight  as  the 
trail  that  followed  its  sweep.  Only  a  few 
wooded  islands  broke  the  monotony  of  the 
valley  which  was  from  eight  to  ten  miles  wide. 


ALONG  THE  PLATTE  71 

It  was  not  always  possible  for  the  lads  to 
camp  near  the  channel,  but  they  always  found 
plenty  of  good  water  by  digging  wells  only 
a  few  feet  deep,  for  in  dry  seasons  much  of 
the  water  of  the  Platte  creeps  toward  the 
Missouri  as  an  underground  flow. 

In  these  camps  the  lads  also  learned  to  use 
a  new  kind  of  fuel.  They  gathered  armfuls 
of  driftwood  for  boiling  or  roasting  their 
meat,  and  although  the  emigrants  had  used 
much  of  this  fuel,  Sam's  party  had  no  dif- 
ficulty in  gathering  a  supply. 

The  two  small  boys  wished  very  much  to 
build  a  big  warm  camp-fire  after  dark,  but 
Sam  did  not  think  it  would  be  wise. 

"We  have  not  been  pestered,"  he  argued, 
"by  begging  and  thieving  Indians,  and  I  think 
we  had  better  not  build  any  signal  fires  to 
bring  them  upon  us." 


CHAPTER  X 

STRANGE    SOUNDS 

FROM  the  last  camp  on  the  Platte  near  the 
place  where  the  river  forks  into  the  South 
and  North  Platte,  the  lads  saw  a  haze  of 
smoke  arise  in  the  distance,  and  Sam  gave  it 
as  his  opinion  that  this  indicated  a  camp  of 
Crows  or  Cheyennes,  who  were  hunting  buf- 
faloes south  of  the  South  Fork. 

Dick  and  Ben  offered  to  stand  guard  for  a 
while  after  dark  although  Sam  did  not  think 
that  the  Indians  had  yet  discovered  them. 

The  sun  set  like  a  great  ball  of  red  fire 
beyond  the  river  and  made  the  stream  run 
crimson  like  a  streak  of  blood  between  white 
sandbars  and  dark  patches  of  scrub  willows. 
From  the  southwest,  banks  of  black  clouds 
were  rising,  and  were  shown  from  time  to 
time  in  bold  relief  by  streaks  and  broad  sheets 
of  lightning ;  and  as  the  clouds  rose  higher  a 
distant  rumbling  thunder  could  be  faintly 
heard. 

Before  Sam  and  Al  rolled  in,  they  covered 

72 


STRANGE  SOUNDS  73 

the  packs  carefully,  and  placed  two  heavy 
pieces  of  canvas  ready  to  cover  their  beds  in 
case  of  a  downpour.  They  had  brought  a 
tent  with  them,  but  there  were  no  poles  at 
this  camp  to  set  it  up. 

There  was  no  danger  from  Indians  during 
a  night  like  this;  but  the  youngsters  felt  so 
important  that  nothing  would  do  but  they 
must  stand  guard,  because  they  were  now  in 
the  real  Indian  country. 

When  the  storm  finally  broke  with  severe 
thunder  and  lightning  and  a  violent  wind 
driving  clouds  of  sand  and  dust  before  it, 
several  of  the  horses  tore  up  their  picket-pins 
and  stampeded  for  shelter  toward  a  willow 
thicket  near  the  river. 

The  boys  raced  after  them,  but  when  they 
reached  the  thicket  into  which  the  animals 
had  disappeared,  they  heard  strange  sounds 
which  made  them  fearful  to  go  any  farther. 

"It's  Indians  killing  somebody,"  whis- 
pered the  imaginative  Dick. 

"Ah,  it  isn't,"  replied  Ben,  also  too  scared 
to  speak  aloud;  "it's  bears  killing  our 
horses." 

At  one  moment  the  sound  seemed  to  be  a 


74      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

groan  as  if  a  man  tried  to  cry  for  help,  but 
was  too  far  gone  to  utter  any  words;  then 
it  seemed  to  be  an  unearthly  rattle  or  gurgle 
as  of  some  monsters  in  deadly  combat. 

"Let's  run  and  call  Sam,"  urged  Dick. 
"There  are  Indians  in  there,  I  tell  you. 
Can't  you  hear  them  fight?" 

"Sam,  come  quick!"  Ben  called,  when  they 
reached  camp.  "Three  of  our  horses  have 
run  away,  and  I  guess  the  Indians  have  got 
them." 

Sam  and  Al  were  already  looking  for  the 
lost  boys  and  horses. 

"You  fool  kids!"  Sam  scolded  them,  "you 
didn't  picket  the  horses  right.  Did  you  see 
the  Indians  I ' ' 

"No,  we  didn't  see  them,"  Dick  informed 
him.  "But  they  are  in  there,  in  the  willows. 
We  heard  them  fighting  or  killing  somebody. ' ' 

The  three  boys  soon  arrived  at  the  thicket, 
while  Al  and  Prince  had  been  left  to  guard  the 
camp. 

For  a  moment  Sam  was  puzzled.  Could  it 
be  possible  that  some  Indians  had  outwitted 
him,  before  he  had  even  suspected  their 
presence  ? 


STRANGE  SOUNDS  75 

"There  they  are!  There  they  are!"  cried 
Dick,  as  the  blood-curdling  sound  again  came 
from  the  river. 

But  the  gruesome  sound  did  not  scare  Sam 
a  bit.  On  the  contrary,  he  began  to  laugh 
aloud. 

"That's  no  Indian,  thank  God.  That's  a 
horse  in  distress.  One  of  our  horses  has 
snarled  himself  up  in  the  picket-rope  and  is 
choking  to  death.  Follow  me,  quick  I  We 
must  save  him." 

However,  to  their  surprise,  the  three  horses 
were  all  quietly  munching  brush  and  grass 
near  the  river. 

"Well,  that  beats  me,"  Sam  remarked. 
"It  surely  was  the  call  of  a  horse  in  trouble. 
These  critters  aren't  in  trouble.  Where  on 
earth  did  that  sound  come  from  1 ' ' 

Just  then  they  heard  it  again,  and  Ben  and 
Dick  felt  the  hair  rise  on  their  heads. 

"Great  heavens!"  cried  Sam.  "Look,  a 
lost  horse,  mired  in  the  quicksand ! ' ' 

By  the  time  Ben  and  Dick  had  made  out  a 
dark  form  on  the  other  side  of  a  narrow 
channel,  Sam  had  waded  across  and  tried  to 
help  the  animal. 


76      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

" Bring  me  two  picket-ropes,  quick!"  he 
called.  "He  is  going  down.  I  can  stand  on 
this  snag,  while  I  tie  the  ropes  around  his 
neck.  We  must  try  to  save  him. ' ' 

When  he  had  tied  the  ropes  he  told  the  two 
lads  to  fasten  the  other  ends  to  their  saddles 
and  pull. 

"Steady,  boys,  steady!"  he  called  to  them. 
*  *  His  legs  may  be  caught  in  a  snag.  All  right 
now!  Pull  again,  he's  coming.  Go  ahead! 
pull  him  across.  Whoa,  now!" 

When  the  mired  animal  had  been  dragged 
upon  the  sand-bank  like  so  much  dead  weight, 
Sam  quickly  took  the  ropes  off,  and  when  he 
found  that  the  horse  had  no  broken  legs,  he 
urged  him  gently  to  get  up  on  his  feet. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  animal  got  up,  but 
was  still  nervous  and  trembling.  Sam  patted 
him  on  the  neck,  while  Dick  and  Sam  rubbed 
the  mud  off  his  flanks  with  some  willow  brush, 
and  after  a  while  he  followed  them  to  camp  of 
his  own  accord,  where  he  greeted  the  other 
horses  with  a  glad  whinny. 

"Well,"  declared  Sam  to  Al,  "the  young- 
sters had  quite  a  scare;  but  I  am  glad  they 


STRANGE  SOUNDS  77 

called  me.  Within  a  very  short  time  this  poor 
creature  would  have  choked  and  drowned  in 
the  quicksand." 

The  small  boys  wondered  how  he  got  into 
the  river  and  where  he  came  from. 

Sam  told  them  that  he  was  undoubtedly  a 
horse  lost  or  abandoned  by  the  emigrants. 

1  'He  may  have  been  sick  or  lame,  and  he 
stayed  near  the  river,  where  he  found  plenty 
of  grass  and  water.  Wolves  and  coyotes  that 
follow  every  train,  probably  kept  him  from 
going  near  the  trail  and  following  the  train. 
When  he  got  the  wind  of  our  horses  he  tried 
to  join  them  and  fell  into  a  mass  of  quick- 
sand. If  he  had  grown  up  on  the  plains,  he 
would  have  been  more  careful  about  his  foot- 
ing. But  even  wild  animals  get  mired  or 
drowned  sometimes.  Buffaloes,  for  instance, 
break  through  the  ice  in  spring  and  thousands 
of  them  drown;  but  Indian  ponies  and  wild 
horses  are  very  careful  about  their  footing." 

Sam  decided  to  make  an  early  start  in  the 
morning,  because  he  feared  that  some  hunting 
party  from  the  Indian  camp  might  come  down 
the  fork;  but  the  two  small  boys  were  so 


78      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

sleepy  after  their  adventure  that  Al  had  to 
take  the  blankets  away  from  them  to  make 
them  get  up. 

Thus  far  things  had  gone  well  with  Sam's 
party.  They  had  made  excellent  time,  no 
Indians  had  troubled  them,  and  they  had  just 
picked  up  a  fine  horse.  The  boys  called  him 
Grunter,  and  when  the  caravan  started 
Grunter  joined  them,  apparently  glad  to  have 
found  company. 

Their  supply  of  meat  was  about  gone  now, 
but  Sam  expected  to  find  game  within  the 
next  few  days.  After  they  had  turned  north 
and  crossed  the  South  Fork,  they  did  indeed 
see  both  elk  and  deer,  but  the  animals  were 
so  far  away  from  the  trail  that  they  could 
not  hunt  them  without  delaying  the  train  at 
least  half  a  day,  and  Sam  would  not  listen  to 
any  such  plan. 

11  Travel,  travel!  Keep  a-going!"  was  his 
constant  admonition. 

"After  we  have  crossed  the  North  Fork,  we 
ought  to  find  buffalo,  and  a  fat  buffalo  will 
keep  us  in  meat  for  a  month.  ' ' 

The  aspect  of  the  country  was  now  gradu- 
ally changing.  The  North  and  South  Fork 


STEANGE  SOUNDS  79 

ran  with  a  swift  current  through  deep  rocky 
valleys,  which  -some  distance  above  their  junc- 
tion deepened  and  narrowed  into  canyons. 
Broad-leaved  trees  filled  the  narrow  valleys, 
while  dark  pines  and  cedars  arose  from  ro'cky 
bluffs  and  hills  like  sentinels  of  the  moun- 
tains, which  the  travelers  were  approaching. 

The  lads  reached  the  ford  of  the  North 
Platte  on  a  Sunday,  and  as  both  men  and  ani- 
mals were  much  fatigued  with  the  constant 
rapid  travel,  they  decided  to  make  this  a  day 
of  rest  in  camp. 

To  appreciate  a  Sunday  in  camp,  one  must 
have  traveled  hard  through  heat  and  cold, 
through  storm  and  rain.  One  must  have 
rolled  up  in  his  blankets  with  the  feeling 
that  he  must  rise  again  before  the  summer 
stars  fade  away,  and  that  to-morrow  and  the 
next  day  and  the  next  he  must  travel,  travel; 
till  his  limbs  ache  and  his  eyes  grow  weary, 
and  till  the  faithful  animal  that  carries  him 
plods  along  with  a  drooping  head  and  a  stum- 
bling gait.  These  are  the  experiences  one 
must  have  undergone  to  appreciate  Sunday 
in  camp. 

Now  there  was  time  to  have  a  real  invig- 


80       THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

orating  swim  in  the  cool  current  of  the  river, 
and  stroll  up  and  down  the  stream  to  pick 
wild  cherries  and  service-berries  to  mix  with 
their  dried  beef.  And  after  a  real  Sunday 
dinner  from  which  pan-bread,  dried  fruit,  and 
sweet  coffee  were  not  omitted,  what  a  pleasure 
it  was  to  stretch  out  in  the  shade  and  let  the 
eye  follow  buzzards  and  eagles  draw  their 
graceful  spirals  in  mid-air,  and  lazily  watch 
the  fleecy  summer  clouds  float  eastward! 

And  while  thus  stretched  at  ease  on  the 
banks  of  the  wild  river,  their  memory  flitted 
back  to  childhood  scenes  in  Illinois,  and  their 
fancy  took  wings  to  the  distant  Pacific  and 
the  Willamette  Valley. 

Where  did  Father  and  Mother  spend  the 
Sunday?  Had  they  safely  doubled  the 
dangerous  Cape  Horn?  What  a  lot  of  stories 
thej  would  have  to  exchange,  when  the  fam- 
ilies would  be  once  more  united. 

1  'Boys,"  asked  Sam  after  a  while,  "did  you 
ever  think  of  the  Bible  verses  Mother  used  to 
like  so  much?  Listen  just  a  little  while.  It 
seems  to  me  that  I  had  to  travel  over  the 
plains  to  understand  them. 

"  'Who  maketh  the  clouds  his  chariots: 


STRANGE  SOUNDS  81 

who  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind. 

"  'He  sendeth  the  springs  into  the  valleys, 
which  run  among  the  hills. 

"  'He  causeth  the  grass  to  grow  for  the  cat- 
tle, and  herb  for  the  service  of  man. ' 

The  two  small  boys  had  made  a  discovery, 
which  they  were  eager  to  follow  up. 

"May  Dick  and  I  go  fishing!"  asked  Ben. 
"We  saw  some  big  ones  in  a  deep  hole  just  a 
little  way  up." 

Sam  had  no  objection.  "But  you  have  no 
bait,"  he  suggested.  "What  are  you  going 
to  catch  them  with?" 

But  that  objection  did  not  deter  the  two 
young  travelers. 

Ben  soon  produced  some  hooks  and  lines. 
In  a  shallow  pool  they  caught  enough  min- 
nows with  their  hands  and  hats,  and  before 
supper  time,  they  came  into  camp  jubilant, 
with  a  fine  string  of  pike. 

"How  are  you  going  to  eat  them?"  Sam 
teased.  '  *  We  have  no  butter  to  fry  them  in. ' ' 

"Aw,  go  on,  Sam,"  Ben  argued.  "You 
don 't  need  butter  in  camp. 

"Al,  you  can  fix  them.     Can't  you?" 

And  Al  did  fix  them  by  frying  them  in 


82      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

bacon  fat  and  seasoning  them  with  salt,  pep- 
per, and  wild  onions,  so  that  Sam  admitted 
that  they  were  the  best  fish  he  ever  ate. 

In  the  evening  the  lads  sat  on  a  high  rock 
above  the  river  and  watched  the  sun  sink  into 
the  plain  and  tint  the  clouds  with  pink,  red, 
and  orange.  Thus  ended  their  Sunday  on 
the  Platte. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   CROW'S   THREAT 

THE  lads  had  traveled  the  five  hundred 
miles  from  Fort  Leavenworth  without  serious 
difficulty.  But  they  were  now  entering  upon 
the  dangerous  part  of  the  trail. 

If,  however,  they  could  get  over  the  next 
hundred  and  sixty  miles  and  reach  Fort  La- 
ramie  in  the  present  state  of  Wyoming,  they 
were  ready  to  enter  the  mountains. 

At  that  place  the  American  Fur  Company 
maintained  a  post  where  repairs  could  be 
made  and  fresh  horses  and  all  kinds  of  sup- 
plies could  be  secured;  that  is,  if  one  had 
money  or  furs  or  other  goods  to  offer  in  ex- 
change. 

At  this  point  travelers  crossing  the  plains 
could  also  enjoy  a  few  days  of  rest  without 
fearing  that  their  animals  would  be  run  off 
or  their  scalps  lifted  by  lawless  bands  of 
Indians. 

83 


84       THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

In  high  spirits  the  lads  followed  the  well- 
marked  trail  on  the  south  side  of  the  North 
Platte  and  expected  to  reach  the  well-known 
camping-place  near  Courthouse  Rock  in  the 
evening. 

The  character  of  the  country  was  now 
rapidly  changing.  Hills  and  buttes  and 
much  broken  country  appeared  everywhere, 
and  in  the  afternoon  they  could  plainly  see 
Jail  Rock  and  Courthouse  Rock  looming  up 
high  and  bare  against  the  western  sky. 

They  were  urging  their  horses  into  a  rapid 
gait  around  a  spur  of  low  bare  cliffs,  when 
they  came  suddenly  face  to  face  with  some 
mounted  Indians. 

''Hang  it,"  muttered  Sa*n,  "a  bunch  of 
Crow  horse-thieves!  A  bad  bunch!  Keep 
cool,  boys!  No  shooting  unless  I  give  the 
word,  but  be  ready  for  the  worst.  * ' 

Sam  signaled  to  the  Indians  not  to  ap- 
proach, and  both  parties  came  to  a  stop. 

Some  of  the  Crows  were  armed  with  guns, 
and  some  with  bows  and  arrows. 

One  of  the  Indians  dismounted,  laid  down 
his  arms  and  approached  on  foot. 

To  this  Sam  could  not  object  without  of- 


THE  CROW'S  THREAT  85 

fending  the  Indians  and  probably  bringing  on 
a  fight.  Therefore  Sam  also  dismounted  and 
awaited  the  leader. 

After  the  usual  greeting  the  Indian  told 
Sam  in  signs  that  he  and  his  braves  were  go- 
ing on  the  war-path  against  the  Pawnees  and 
that  they  wanted  more  horses. 

"You  have  many  horses.  Give  us  some," 
he  concluded. 

"We  need  our  horses,"  Sam  told  him. 
"We  are  going  to  Fort  Laramie  and  Fort 
Hall." 

"Trade  horses,"  signaled  the  Crow. 
"Our  horses  are  tired,  yours  are  fresh,  and 
you  travel  slow.  We  must  go  fast  or  the 
Pawnees  will  catch  us." 

Sam  felt  that  this  was  only  a  ruse  to  rob 
them  of  all  their  horses  and  their  goods. 
Moreover,  his  party  had  no  use  for  a  lot  of 
scrawny,  half -wild  Indian  ponies. 

"We  wish  to  keep  our  own  horses,"  he 
replied  firmly.  "Your  horses  cannot  carry 
our  packs,  and  are  too  small  for  the  white 
man's  wagons  and  plows." 

"Stingy,  white  dogs,"  the  Crow  said,  and 
started  to  lead  off  one  of  the  horses. 


86      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Sam  knew,  if  he  allowed  this,  the  Indians 
would  rob  them  at  once  of  all  their  free 
horses,  and  during  the  night  would  try  to 
stampede  the  others  and  help  themselves  to 
their  goods.  The  journey  to  Oregon  would 
end  right  there,  and  most  likely  they  would 
all  be  killed.  All  this  flashed  through  Sam's 
mind  in  a  second.  So,  before  the  Indian 
could  lead  the  horse  away,  Sam  stepped  up 
and  tried  to  take  the  halter  rope  out  of  his 
hand,  and  as  the  Indian  resisted  Prince 
sprang  up  and  seized  him  by  the  shoulder, 
while  Sam  gave  him  a  push  forward,  saying : 

1 '  Get  away !    Go  back  to  your  men ! ' ' 

The  Indian  stumbled  forward  and  Sam 
called  off  the  angry  dog. 

The  other  Indians  were  getting  their  bows 
and  guns  ready  for  an  attack,  and  Sam  called 
to  his  men  to  get  behind  the  horses  and  be 
ready  for  a  fight. 

When  the  Indians  saw  that  they  could  not 
bully  or  scare  this  small  party  of  white  men 
into  giving  up  their  horses  and  goods,  they 
drew  off  to  a  distance  to  hold  a  council. 

"Are  they  going  to  attack  us?"  Ben  and 
Dick  asked  anxiously. 


THE  CROW'S  THREAT  87 

"We  shall  know  pretty  soon,"  Sam  an- 
swered. "I  think  they  would,  if  they  had 
not  seen  how  well  armed  we  are,  and  that  we 
mean  to  fight,  if  necessary." 

" Watch  them!"  Al  said  pointing  to  the 
Reds.  "The  leader  is  coming  on  horseback. 
Maybe  he  wants  to  trade  for  Prince.  Per- 
haps he  will  give  you  his  pony  for  him." 

"He  can't  get  him!"  exclaimed  Ben.  "I 
don't  want  his  skinny  old  pony." 

When  the  Crow  came  within  good  sign 
talking  distance  he  stopped  and  began  to 
make  signs. 

"What  does  he  say?"  asked  Ben,  not  being 
quite  sure  but  that  the  Crow,  having  learned 
the  great  merits  of  Prince,  did  now  want  to 
get  his  dog,  as  long  as  he  could  not  get  any 
horses. 

"He  doesn't  want  your  dog,"  Sam  ex- 
plained, laughing.  "He  is  telling  us  what  he 
thinks  of  us.  He  says:  t  White  dogs. 
Squaws.  Afraid  to  fight.  White  dogs.  We 
rub  you  out. '  ' ' 

"Sam,  I  wouldn't  take  that,"  exclaimed 
Ben,  "if  I  was  as  big  as  you  are.  Why  don't 
you  ride  over  and  lick  him!  Wouldn't  you, 


88       THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Dick?  Let  me  sick  Prince  at  him!  Prince 
will  show  him  who  is  a  squaw. ' ' 

"A  fine  bunch  of  Indian  fighters  you  would 
make,"  Sam  replied  laughing.  ''You  and 
Dick  and  the  dog ! 

"Let  me  tell  you  something.  A  good 
plainsman  and  trapper  does  most  of  his 
Indian-fighting  with  his  head.  He  keeps  cool 
and  uses  his  wits,  and  in  that  way  he  saves 
his  powder  for  the  few  occasions  when  he 
has  to  fight  with  guns  in  order  to  save  his 
goods  or  his  life. 

"Why,  boys,  that  Crow  with  his  deaf-and- 
dumb  show  is  just  a  joke.  Let  him  send  all 
the  cuss-words  he  knows.  What  do  we  care  T 
If  he  were  not  afraid  of  us,  he  would  have 
our  goods  and  horses  now  and — perhaps  our 
scalps,  too." 

"What's  he  saying  now?"  asked  Ben,  who 
was  intently  watching  the  gesticulating 
Indian. 

"Wait  a  minute,"  Sam  consented  good- 
naturedly;  "let  me  see  if  I  can  make  it  out. 
He  talks  pretty  fast. 

"He  says,  'Dead  skunks —    Rotten  dogs — 


THE  CROW'S  THREAT  89 

Gophers.  Run  to  your  holes.'  There  he 
goes  at  it  again.  'White  dogs.  Scared 
squaws.  Rub  you  out. ' 

"All  right,  Mr.  Crow.  When  you  begin 
the  rubbing-out,  you  will  find  us  ready." 

"Rub  you  out,"  the  Indian  signaled  once 
more,  before  he  turned  around  and  rode  away 
with  his  men. 

The  boys  realized  that  they  had  had  a  nar- 
row escape  from  a  fight.  That  Crow  with  his 
deaf-and-dumb  talk  had  tried  to  provoke  the 
boys  into  some  false  move.  If  one  of  the 
boys  had  separated  from  the  others,  or  if  the 
Crow  had  been  able  to  scatter  their  horses, 
there  would  have  been  serious  trouble. 

"That  fellow  is  a  great  liar,"  Sam  ex- 
pressed his  opinion,  after  they  had  talked  the 
whole  situation  over.  "He  is  not  leading  a 
war-party  against  the  Pawnees.  If  he  were, 
they  would  not  turn  around  and  ride  off  west- 
ward. The  Pawnees  live  directly  east  of  this 
region,  on  the  Loup  Fork  of  the  Platte.  I 
guess  he  took  us  for  a  bunch  of  green  boys, 
who  know  nothing  of  the  plains  and  of 
Indians. 


90      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

"You  fellows  stay  bunched  right  here.  I 
will  just  climb  that  cliff  and  follow  them 
with  my  spy-glass." 

When  Sam  returned,  his  face  looked 
troubled  and  thoughtful. 

"What  is  it,  Sam?"  asked  Al.  "Are  they 
coming  back?" 

"No,  worse  than  that,"  explained  Sam. 
"There  is  a  camp  of  about  fifty  tepees  right 
on  the  trail  just  this  side  of  Courthouse  Bock. 
And  I  saw  a  herd  of  buffaloes  about  five 
miles  south  of  this  place.  Our  friends  are 
riding  slowly  toward  the  big  camp  at  Court- 
house Kock.  I  think  they  have  been  scouting 
all  day  for  buffalo,  and  their  horses  are 
tired." 

"That  is  surely  bad  news,"  admitted  Al. 
"How  in  the  world  are  we  going  to  get  past 
them!" 


CHAPTER  XII 

TRAVELING  BY   THE   NORTH   STAR 

SAM  agreed  that  they  were  in  a  dangerous 
position,  but  he  was  trying  to  figure  out  what 
the  real  feeling  of  the  Crows  was,  what 
they  might  plan,  and  what  they  were  likely 
to  do. 

If  any  man  in  the  emigrant  train  had  in- 
jured a  member  of  the  Crow  tribe,  these 
Indians  would  surely  take  revenge  on  this 
small  party  of  whites,  if  it  seemed  safe  to 
do  so. 

The  Crows  they  had  met  were  certainly  in 
an  ugly  mood.  Their  request  for  horses  and 
for  trading  had  been  refused  and  their  leader 
had  been  firmly,  if  not  roughly  handled.  Evi- 
dently the  packs  of  the  white  men  had  aroused 
the  cupidity  of  the  Crows,  who  had  a  bad 
reputation  as  thieves  and  robbers  of  small 
parties. 

"Couldn't  we  buy  them  off?"  Al  suggested. 

91 


92      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

"We  could  spare  a  horse  or  two  and  some 
goods. " 

"I  don't  think  we  could,"  Sam  argued. 
"We  are  too  small  a  party  and  if  they  once 
get  us  into  their  camp,  we  are  at  their  mercy. 
They  will  see  at  once  that  it  is  just  as  safe 
and  just  as  easy  for  them  to  take  everything 
we  have  as  to  accept  a  small  gift. 

"If  we  give  them  a  horse  or  two,  some 
goods  and  ammunition,  we  shall  only  whet 
their  appetites,  and  they  will  want  more,  till 
they  have  cleaned  us  out. 

"We  cannot  trade  with  them,  because  they 
have  nothing  we  can  use.  We  don't  wish  to 
buy  robes  and  furs ;  we  want  to  get  to  Oregon. 

"Here  is  the  amount,  boys,  of  the  whole 
business,"  Sam  concluded.  "Of  those  seven 
I  would  not  be  afraid.  I  believe  we  could 
drop  that  whole  bunch  without  getting  a 
scratch.  Their  old  guns  and  their  bows  are 
no  match  for  our  arms.  I  saw  to  that,  before 
we  started. 

"But  that  big  camp  we  can't  handle.  If 
we  get  into  a  fight,  enough  of  them  will  dog 
us  day  and  night  till  they  wear  us  out,  steal 
our  horses,  and  pick  us  off  one  by  one. 


TRAVELING  BY  NORTH  STAR     93 

"If  we  enter  their  camp,  we  are  helpless. 
The  only  safe  thing  I  can  think  of  is  to  slip 
away  from  them,  k)se  them,  and  vanish  away 
so  they  can't  find  us." 

Al  did  not  think  that  they  would  be  hurt, 
if  they  openly  entered  the  camp  as  friends. 
Sam  granted  that  Indian  rules  of  hospitality 
would  probably  insure  their  safety,  while  they 
were  in  camp ;  but  he  explained  that  Indians 
thought  it  all  right  to  follow  a  party  and  rob 
them  and  kill  them,  if  they  had  a  grudge 
against  them. 

"And  I  fear,"  Sam  warned,  "that  the 
party  we  met  will  stir  up  the  whole  camp 
against  us. ' ' 

After  they  had  discussed  their  dangerous 
situation  a  little  more,  Sam  decided  that  they 
should  take  no  chances  on  being  well  treated 
and  allowed  to  go  their  way  by  a  lot  of 
thievish,  heathen  Crows. 

There  was  only  an  hour  of  daylight  left, 
and  the  Indians  would  expect  them  to  camp 
on  some  small  stream  or  water-hole  this  side 
of  Courthouse  Rock. 

"If  we  do  that,"  Sam  felt  sure,  "they  will 
try  some  time  after  dark  to  stampede  our 


94      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

horses,  and  we  shall  have  to  fight  them  off. 

"A  fight  once  started,  we  shall  have  the 
whole  mob  after  us,  for  Indians  never  ask 
'Who  started  the  fight?*  or  'Who  is  to  blame 
for  it?'  " 

The  time  had  come,  when  they  had  to  act 
on  the  advice  of  the  old  mountaineer  at  the 
Big  Blue.  They  must  leave  the  trail,  what- 
ever might  happen.  The  present  danger  had 
to  be  met. 

They  followed  for  a  short  distance  the  trail 
of  the  Crows  but  as  soon  as  they  came  to 
some  hard,  rocky  prairie,  they  scattered  and 
turned  straight  north  for  the  river,  the  North 
Platte,  which  each  one  forded  separately, 
leading  one  or  two  horses. 

Having  crossed  the  river  they  camped  to 
let  the  horses  drink,  pick  some  food,  and  enjoy 
a  short  rest. 

Al  in  the  meantime  had  built,  in  a  rocky 
hollow,  a  small  smokeless  fire  of  dry  wood 
over  which  he  fried  a  panful  of  bacon  and 
brewed  a  kettleful  of  coffee.  Sugar,  dried 
beef,  and  biscuit  completed  the  meal,  and  Sam 
told  the  boys  to  eat  all  they  wanted,  because 


TRAVELING  BY  NORTH  STAR     95 

it  might  be  some  time  before  they  would  get 
another  meal. 

As  soon  as  the  cooking  was  finished,  Sam 
poured  water  on  the  fire,  and  an  hour  later, 
the  whole  train  was  again  on  the  march. 

"  There  will  be  some  puzzled  Crow  scouts 
to-night  trying  to  find  our  camp  along  the 
old  trail,"  Sam  chuckled.  "And  to-morrow 
there  will  be  a  lot  of  them  wondering  what  big 
medicine  the  green  wh_  *  boys  had  to  enable 
them  to  fly  away  like  birds. ' y 

"Don't  you  think  they  will  track  us!" 
asked  Dick  seriously. 

1  '  I  doubt  it, ' '  Sam  laughed.  ' « I  think  they 
will  figure  that  we  struck  out  southwest  for 
the  Fort  St.  Vrain  and  Fort'Laramie  trail. 
If  they  do,  they  will  never  hear  or  see  any- 
thing of  us  again." 

"Sam,  have  you  that  Shawnee  medicine!" 
asked  Ben. 

"Of  course  I  have  it,"  Sam  replied  gayly, 
"but  I  am  not  depending  on  it." 

"Well,  it  has  brought  us  luck  so  far,"  re- 
marked his  young  brother. 

"Ben,  you  little  fool,"  Sam  joked.    "I  de- 


96      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

clare,  if  yon  aren't  already  turning  heathen. 
What  would  Mother  think,  if  she  knew  you 
were  believing  in  Indian  medicine?" 

"Why  do  you  carry  it,  if  you  don't  believe 
in  it?"  asked  Ben,  a  little  peeved  at  being 
made  fun  of. 

"I  carry  rt,"  Sam  spoke,  "as  a  rare  keep- 
sake from  an  old  friend  whom  I  shall  probably 
never  see  again,  and  who  gave  me  what  he 
valued  most.  I  pro^Jised  that  I  would  take 
it  all  the  way  to  Oregon,  and  to  Oregon  it 
will  go,  if  I  ever  get  there." 

After  a  while,  little  Dick,  noticing  that  they 
were  no  longer  following  the  river,  asked  Al 
how  they  would  find  water;  but  Al  assured 
him  that,  although  the  country  looked  quite 
desolate  as  compared  with  Illinois  or  Mis- 
souri, it  was  not  a  desert,  and  they  should 
find  plenty  of  water  even  if  they  did  not  al- 
ways travel  in  sight  of  a  stream  as  they  had 
done  every  day  since  they  left  Fort  Leaven- 
worth  on  the  Missouri. 

For  a  few  miles  they  followed  the  buffalo 
trails,  which  in  those  days  led  from  all  di- 
rections on  the  plains  to  the  nearest  river. 
But  when  the  buffalo  trails  faded  out,  and 


TRAVELING  BY  NORTH  STAR     97 

Sam  struck  right  into  the  sand-hills  winding 
this  way  and  that  way  without  following  a 
trail  of  any  kind  and  without  ever  looking 
at  his  compass,  Ben  also  became  uneasy. 

Although  the  lads  had  made  nearly  six  hun- 
dred miles,  they  had  followed  a  plain  trail,  or 
really  a  road  all  the  time.  The  two  younger 
boys  had  been  warned  against  getting  lost, 
and  now  they  both  felt  quite  sure  that  Sam 
was  getting  lost.  The  country  they  thought 
began  to  look  much  like  some  old  pictures 
they  had  s-een  ot  the  Desert  of  Sahara,  where 
both  men  and  camels  were  buried  by  terrible 
sand-storms. 

The  horses  went  on  a  slow  walk,  even 
Prince  seemed  to  find  walking  hard.  A  few 
wolves  and  coyotes  were  heard  howling,  and 
the  faint  light  of  the  stars  made  the  sand-hills 
look  like  a  strange  spooky  world  to  the  small 
boys,  who  besides  getting  tired,  were  not  ac- 
customed to  travel  by  night. 

Finally  Ben  could  not  hold  back  any  longer. 
"Sam,"  he  asked,  "do  you  know  where  we 
are  going?  We  have  not  had  a  trail  for  a  long 
time.  Why  don 't  you  look  at  your  compass  ? ' ' 

"Why  no,  brother,"  Sam  teased,  "I  don't 


98      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

know  exactly,  where  we  are  going.  We  are 
just  going." 

"Look  at  your  compass!  Why  don't 
you  ? ' '  the  small  boy  urged  in  an  anxious  tone 
of  voice. 

"The  compass  could  not  tell  me,"  Sam  now 
spoke  in  a  quieting  tone  of  voice.  "Don't 
you  know  how  I  am  traveling?  I  am  just 
going  by  the  North  Star,  holding  about  five 
degrees  east  of  it  as  near  as  I  can.  But  it 
makes  no  difference  whether  we  go  a  little 
farther  east  or  west." 

Then  Sam  and  Al  had  to  explain  that  the 
North  Star  never  sets  and  how  one  can  find 
it ;  and  that  the  Dipper  never  sets,  but  swings 
in  a  circle  all  around  the  North  Star.  These 
things  had  never  meant  much  to  the  smaller 
boys,  until  this  night,  when  their  big  brother 
rode  calmly  into  the  wildest  country  they 
could  imagine,  setting  his  course  by  the 
North  Star. 

"Then  you  know  where  you  are  going?" 
Ben  asked  again  after  a  while. 

"All  I  need  to  know,  brother,  is  that  we 
are  going  straight  into  the  sand-hills.  Don't 
you  see  the  plan  ?  We  want  to  lose  those  In- 


TRAVELING  BY  NORTH  STAR     99 

dians  that  were  so  nice  to  us  to-day.  We 
can't  do  it  by  going  where  they  expect  us  to 
go.  For  that  reason,  we  are  heading  straight 
into  the  sand-Mils,  because  that  is  a  region 
where  few  white  men  ever  go." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SPOTTED   WOLF 

SPOTTED  WOLF  was  the  name  of  the  Crow 
renegade  who  had  nearly  brought  on  a  fight 
with  Sam's  party.  He  had  once  listened  to 
a  trapper  telling  his  Indian  friends  that  the 
whites  had  a  big  air  medicine,  which  would 
make  a  tepee  go  up  to  the  clouds.  Spotted 
Wolf  did  not  get  from  this  story  a  very  clear 
idea  of  a  balloon  ascension,  which  the  trap- 
per tried  to  relate,  but  he  did  remember  that 
the  whites  had  some  big  medicine  which  made 
things  go  up  in  the  air. 

Sam  had  not  quite  read  the  mind  of  Spot- 
ted Wolf  correctly.  He  did  not  make  allow- 
ance for  the  pride  and  boastfulness  of  such 
Indians  as  Spotted  Wolf  and  his  band  of 
young  Indian  toughs.  They  did  not  say  a 
word  about  being  ill-treated  by  white  men  or 
having  a  dog  sicked  on  their  leader.  They 
had  a  plan  of  securing  fame  and  booty  and 
a  lot  of  coups  out  of  this  small  foolish  band 
of  white  men. 

100 


SPOTTED  WOLF  101 

They  did  ride  to  the  main  camp,  where 
they  ate  a  big  meal  of  buffalo  meat  and  pro- 
vided themselves  with  fresh  horses.  Each 
brave  also  took  a  buffalo  robe,  not  because 
the  night  might  be  cool,  but  because  waving 
a  buffalo  robe  while  letting  out  their  devil- 
ish yells  was  a  most  effective  way  of  stam- 
peding the  white  men's  cattle  and  horses. 

When  the  sun  had  set,  Spotted  Wolf  and 
his  cut-throats  quietly  rode  away  eastward. 
They  were  careful  not  to  tell  the  chief  of  the 
village  anything  about  their  plans,  for  the  old 
man  was  a  friend  of  the  whites  and  would 
have  forbidden  Spotted  Wolf  to  molest  the 
travelers.  If  they  came  back  with  horses, 
booty,  and  scalps,  the  whole  village  would  go 
wild,  and  they  could  easily  tell  that  the  white 
men  had  begun  the  fight. 

There  is  a  small  stream  known  to-day  as 
Greenwood  Creek  which  the  Oregon  Trail 
crossed  about  five  miles  northeast  of  Court- 
house Rock.  This  was  a  good  place  for  a 
small  party  to  camp,  and  this  place  Spotted 
Wolf  and  his  band  quietly  approached  under 
cover  of  darkness.  They  were  much  sur- 
prised at  not  finding  the  white*  boys  there. 


102     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Perhaps  they  had  not  come  quite  so  far. 
They  might  have  gone  into  camp  at  some 
place  near  the  river.  So  the  Crow  bandits 
rode  slowly  along  the  trail  to  the  place  where 
they  had  met  the  boys  in  the  afternoon. 

The  boys  were  gone.  There  was  no  sight 
or  sound  of  them.  The  red  wolves  were  very 
much  puzzled  and  lay  down  to  sleep,  intend- 
ing to  follow  the  trail  of  their  intended  vic- 
tims in  the  morning. 

When  daylight  came  they  found  it  as  easy 
to  track  their  victims  as  they  had  expected. 
The  white  boys  had  left  the  Oregon  Trail  and 
gone  southwest,  but  that  did  not  deceive 
Spotted  Wolf.  He  knew  what  that  meant. 
They  were  running  away.  They  were  going 
to  reach  the  white  man's  trail  that  ran  north 
along  the  foothills  to  Fort  Laramie.  The  big 
white  boy  had  foolishly  told  him  they  were 
going  to  Fort  Laramie.  Spotted  Wolf  did 
not  have  to  follow  in  their  actual  tracks.  He 
knew  the  country  and  knew  where  they  could 
go  and  where  they  could  not  go.  But  he 
spread  out  his  party  over  a  stretch  of  two 
miles  to  make  sure  that  he  would  run  them 
down.  They  rode  hard  all  day  and  the  next 


SPOTTED  WOLF  103 

day  without  seeing  any  sign  of  their  vic- 
tims. 

Some  of  the  men  began  to  be  dissatisfied 
and  wanted  to  go  back,  but  Spotted  Wolf  har- 
angued them  into  staying.  They  reached  the 
Fort  Laramie  Trail  and  had  still  seen  no 
white  men.  Here  they  met  a  party  of  trap- 
pers going  south.  Of  these  they  were  really 
afraid  and  acted  very  friendly  to  them,  tell- 
ing them  at  the  same  time  that  four  white 
men  had  stolen  some  of  their  horses  and 
robes;  but  the  trappers  had  not  seen  any 
white  men. 

For  a  while  Spotted  Wolf  was  puzzled. 
His  renown  as  a  warrior  was  at  stake.  He 
could  not  admit  that  he  had  made  a  mistake 
and  had  never  found  the  trail  of  the  white 
boys.  In  this  bad  fix,  he  remembered  the 
trapper's  story  of  the  big  air  medicine. 

There  was  something  strange  about  this 
party,  he  told  his  men.  He  had  seen  it  right 
away.  Four  young  boys  had  never  been 
known  to  cross  the  plains  alone.  They  were 
so  bold  and  brave,  because  they  knew  they 
had  a  big  medicine. 

He  was  sure  they  had  had  the  big  air  med- 


104     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

icine  that  makes  horses  and  men  and  packs  go 
up  to  the  clouds.  Many  of  the  white  men 
were  medicine  men. 

These  men  had  lifted  themselves  up  like 
birds  and  had  flown  over  the  two  rocks  (Jail 
Rock  and  Courthouse  Rock)  after  dark. 

All  the  men,  except  one,  believed  this  story. 
He  had  never  heard,  he  replied  in  answer  to 
the  leader's  long  harangue,  that  the  whites 
had  a  big  air  medicine,  and  while  he  knew 
they  had  many  powerful  medicines  which  the 
Indians  did  not  have,  he  thought  these  white 
boys  were  too  young  to  be  medicine-men. 

He  thought  they  had  turned  around  and 
gone  back  on  the  trail.  Another  big  train  of 
white  men  with  tepee  wagons  and  many 
horses  and  spotted  buffaloes  was  coming 
through  the  Indian  country  on  their  way 
across  the  Shining  Mountains.  The  four 
boys  had  traveled  ahead  of  that  train,  and 
when  they  met  Spotted  Wolf  and  his  warriors 
their  hearts  became  faint  and  they  rode  back 
to  the  train.  That  was  the  way  they  had  dis- 
appeared. 

"  We  should  find  the  big  train,"  he  finished. 
"We  could  easily  steal  some  spotted  buf- 


SPOTTED  WOLF  105 

faloes  and  mules  and  horses  from  them. 
Maybe  we  could  take  some  scalps.  Then  our 
women  will  be  glad  and  there  will  be  a  big 
scalp-dance  in  camp." 

But  Spotted  Wolf  could  not  allow  this  plan 
to  prevail,  for  it  meant  turning  the  leader- 
ship of  the  party  over  to  another  man. 

It  was  doubtful,  he  replied,  that  a  big 
train  of  white  men  was  coming.  None  of  the 
Crow  scouts  had  seen  it  and  if  there  was  such 
a  train  they  could  not  overtake  it  before  it 
reached  Fort  Laramie.  He  had  a  better  plan, 
which  he  was  sure  they  could  carry  out  and 
which  would  bring  them  all  much  fame  and 
wealth. 

He  knew  that  one  day's  journey  south  there 
was  always  a  big  summer  camp  of  the  Arapa- 
hoes  with  many  horses. 

They  should  go  and  steal  horses  from  the 
Arapahoes.  The  Arapahoes  would  not  be 
watching  their  horses,  because  they  did  not 
expect  the  Crow  warriors  to  come  so  far 
south. 

The  argument  of  the  wily  Wolf  prevailed 
and  the  party  set  out  for  the.Arapahoe  camp. 

They  found  an  unguarded  herd  of  about  a 


106     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

hundred  ponies  an  hour  before  daylight  and 
immediately  started  north  with  them,  feeling 
very  big  about  the  success  of  their  plan  and 
already  seeing  themselves  as  rich  and  famous 
men  among  the  Crows. 

At  daylight  the  Arapahoes  discovered  what 
had  happened  and  a  large  party  of  their  brav- 
est warriors,  mounted  on  good  horses,  set  out 
in  pursuit  of  their  enemies. 

They  came  in  sight  of  the  stolen  horses  long 
before  the  noon  hour.  The  Crows  had  been 
too  much  in  a  hurry  to  stop  for  changing 
horses,  and  it  was  too  late  to  do  so,  when 
they  discovered  that  they  were  being  pur- 
sued by  a  big  war  party. 

For  a  while  they  urged  their  horses  and 
the  stolen  herd  to  the  utmost  speed,  but  the 
Arapahoes,  mounted  on  fresh  horses,  and 
nearly  all  leading  an  extra  horse,  were  fast 
gaining  on  them,  so  they  abandoned  the  stolen 
horses  and  fled  for  their  lives  in  different  di- 
rections. But  each  Crow  was  pursued  by 
four  or  five  Arapahoes,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  six  of  the  Crows  were  killed  and 
scalped.  Spotted  Wolf  alone  had  left  his 
horse  and  crawled  into  a  ravine,  where  his 


SPOTTED  WOLF  107 

pursuers  could  not  follow  on  horseback.  But 
feeling  sure  that  the  only  remaining  Crow  was 
still  in  the  ravine,  they  signaled  to  their 
friends,  surrounded  the  place,  and  searched 
for  their  victim.  They  found  him  crouch- 
ing under  some  bushes  of  buffalo-berry,  and 
they  shot  him  full  of  arrows,  before  he  had 
time  to  leave  his  hiding-place. 

In  this  way  it  happened  that  the  war  party 
of  Spotted  Wolf  never  came  back,  a  fate  not 
uncommon  in  Indian  warfare. 

It  was  not  till  a  month  later  that  the  Crows 
learned  through  some  white  traders  that  the 
Arapahoes  had  danced  three  nights  around 
the  scalps  of  Spotted  Wolf  and  his  men. 

However  the  mourning  in  the  Crow  camp 
was  not  as  great  as  would  have  been  the  case 
for  the  loss  of  really  respected  warriors.  The 
squaw  of  Spotted  Wolf  and  the  mothers  of  the 
young  men,  whom  the  old  scoundrel  had  led 
into  evil  ways  each  cut  off  one  of  their  fingers 
and  gashed  themselves,  and  made  several 
nights  hideous  with  their  cries  of  mourning. 
But  most  of  the  men  in  camp  were  glad  that 
Spotted  Wolf  was  gone.  "For,"  said  they, 
"hp  always  got  us  into  trouble  with  the  whites 


108     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

and  into  useless  war  with  our  Indian  neigh- 
bors. He  was  a  bad  man,  who  did  not  love 
his  people.  His  tongue  was  double,  and  he 
led  our  young  men  into  evil  ways.  It  is  good 
that  he  must  live  in  the  land  of  spirits  without 
his  scalp." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

A  STBANGB   COUNTRY 

AFTER  Ben  and  Dick  understood  how  Sam 
followed  his  course  by  the  stars,  they  lost 
their  anxiety  and  followed  the  leader  without 
worrying  about  their  destination. 

None  of  the  boys,  however,  except  Sam 
realized  from  how  great  a  danger  they  had 
escaped.  For,  ever  since  white  men  and  red 
men  came  into  contact,  have  lawless  Indians 
and  bad  white  men  caused  much  of  the  trou- 
ble between  the  two  races  and  made  impossi- 
ble a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  very  serious 
Indian  problem,  which  from  about  1840  to 
1880  caused  the  many  bloody  conflicts  in  the 
region  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific 
coast. 

Sam  kept  his  party  traveling  till  about 
midnight.  By  that  time  he  felt  reasonably 
sure  that  they  had  eluded  Spotted  Wolf,  even 
if  their  trail  should  be  found  and  followed. 
He  had  been  thinking  over  the  events  of  the 
day  as  he  silently  wound  about  among  the 

109 


110     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

white  sand-hills,  dotted  with  dark  patches  of 
grass  and  low  bushes.  Instinctively  he  had 
felt  that  Spotted  Wolf  had  evil  designs,  for 
his  year  with  the  traders  had  taught  him  much 
about  Indian  ways  and  Indian  character.  In- 
deed without  that  experience  it  would  have 
been  madness  to  try  crossing  the  plains  and 
the  mountains.  But  even  now  he  felt  that 
perhaps  he  had  taken  too  great  a  risk,  not 
so  much  for  himself  as  for  the  other  three 
boys.  However,  he  cut  off  these  thoughts  as 
entirely  useless.  They  were  in  the  game  now 
and  had  to  see  it  through. 

When  they  came  to  a  small  lake  surrounded 
by  a  meadow  of  some  ten  acres,  Sam  called  a 
halt. 

1 1 Dick  and  Ben,"  he  ordered,  "you  roll  up 
and  go  to  sleep.  Al,  I  think  you  and  I  had 
better  hobble  the  horses,  although  I  do  not 
believe  they  would  leave  this  meadow.  It 
would  be  no  use  to  picket  them,  because  the 
pins  would  all  pull  up  in  this  sandy  soil. 

"No  Indians  can  find  us  here  before  day- 
light and  Prince  will  keep  the  coyotes  from 
our  meat  and  bacon.  I  guess  he  is  good  for 
something,  anyhow." 


A  STRANGE  COUNTRY          111 

"You  bet  he  is,"  Ben  broke  a  long  silence. 
And  before  he  rolled  in,  he  covered  Prince 
with  a  piece  of  canvas,  for  the  clear  starry 
night  had  grown  quite  cool,  and  Prince  was 
a  short-haired  dog. 

In  the  morning  Prince  was  lying  on  top  of 
his  blanket,  but  around  the  camp  were  many 
tracks  of  coyotes,  and  a  number  of  the  animals 
were  sitting,  like  dark  specters,  on  the  sand- 
hills all  around  them.  However,  the  boys  had 
all  slept  so  soundly  that  none  of  them  had 
heard  Prince  drive  the  hungry  beasts  away. 

"That  dog,"  remarked  Sam,  "doesn't  even 
know  enough  to  go  back  under  his  blanket." 

But  Ben  had  caught  the  twinkle  in  Sam's 
eye  and  merely  replied:  "That's  all  right. 
I  don 't  think  any  dog  does.  I  don 't  care  what 
you  say  about  him.  He  is  my  dog,  and  you 
can't  get  him  back." 

Sam  had  to  cook  breakfast  ewer  a  fire  of 
buffalo  chips,  bois  de  vache,  as  the  French 
hunters  and  trappers  called  it,  for  there  was 
no  wood  in  sight,  except  small  sprays  of  sand- 
cherries,  which  grew  in  beautiful  green 
patches  on  the  sand-hills.  The  fruit  with 
which  the  bushes  were  laden  had  already 


112      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

turned  red,  but  was  still  far  from  being  ripe, 
and  could  not  be  eaten  without  being  cooked 
and  mixed  with  sugar. 

When  breakfast  was  over  Sam  asked  the 
boys  to  sit  down  for  a  council  of  war. 

"What  do  you  think,  big  warriors,"  he 
opened  the  council  with  mock  gravity, 1 1  about 
finding  a  good  camp  with  plenty  of  grass, 
wood,  and  water,  and  then  making  a  big  hunt 
for  buffalo  and  elk?  Al  says  we  have  only 
one  piece  of  dried  beef  left.  Ben  and  Dick, 
you  eat  as  if  you  were  being  paid  big  money 
for  destroying  beef  and  bacon. 

"  Al  and  I  will  go  after  the  game.  Ben  and 
Dick  will  be  squaws  and  dry  and  smoke  the 
meat  and  cook  our  meals,  when  we  come 
home. ' ' 

Ben  and  Dick  wondered  if  Spotted  Wolf 
would  not  track  them  into  this  place,  but 
when  Sam  asked  them  to  go  back  half  a  mile 
and  look  at  the  trail,  they  found  that  even 
the  gentle  wind,  which  had  been  blowing  for 
about  an  hour  had  almost  filled  their  tracks 
with  sand. 

Al  agreed  with  Sam  that  it  would  be  a 
good  plan  for  them  to  hunt  and  cure  meat  for 


A  STRANGE  COUNTRY          113 

a  few  days,  so  that  they  would  have  enough 
to  last  them  to  Fort  Laramie. 

The  small  boys  doubted  that  they  would 
find  any  game  in  the  sand-hills,  because  thus 
far  they  had  only  seen  coyotes  and  a  few  rab- 
bits; but  Sam  assured  them  that  some  trap- 
pers, who  had  been  in  the  region,  had  found 
game  fairly  plentiful. 

It  was  not  long  before  they  had  the  packs 
on  the  horses  and  were  in  the  saddle  them- 
selves, not  so  much  to  escape  from  Indians 
as  to  find  a  good  hunting  camp. 

It  was  only  now,  while  traveling  leisurely 
in  the  daytime  that  they  began  to  take  in  the 
character  of  this  strange  country. 

It  was  not  a  prairie  nor  was  it  mountainous, 
and  it  was  far  from  being  a  desert.  It  was  a 
confusion  of  ridges  and  sand-hills  of  all  sizes 
and  heights,  some  looking  like  small  moun- 
tains almost  two  hundred  feet  high.  Some 
of  them  were  almost  bare,  showing  only  a 
scattered  growth  of  sand-binding  grasses. 
Others  were  covered  in  patches  with  a  growth 
of  sand-cherry,  choke-cherry,  wild  plums, 
hackberry,  and  other  stunted  tree  growth. 

They    traveled    along  leisurely  till  noon, 


114     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

when  they  stopped  on  the  bank  of  a  clear  lit- 
tle stream.  The  boys  were  surprised  to  find 
such  a  stream  in  the  sand-hills,  but  they  were 
still  more  surprised  and  interested  to  find  it 
full  of  lively  small  fish.  However,  there  was 
not  grass  and  wood  enough  for  a  camp  of 
several  days,  and  after  eating  their  noon 
lunch,  they  started  again  in  search  of  a  good 
hunting  camp. 

As  Sam  had  never  been  in  this  region  be- 
fore, he  kept  a  general  northerly  course,  but 
swung  east  and  west  from  time  to  time  to 
make  sure  that  they  did  not  pass  a  good  place. 

Several  times  he  climbed  to  the  top  of  a 
hill  and  after  traveling  several  hours,  he 
could  see  that  they  were  approaching  a  re- 
gion, where  the  meadows,  nestled  among  the 
bleak  hills,  were  getting  more  numerous.  He 
even  saw  several  elk  and  deer  and,  in  the  dis- 
tance, a  few  buffaloes. 

The  lads  rejoiced  at  the  appearance  of 
game,  but  still  a  good  camp  site  they  had  not 
yet  found.  They  passed  sand-hill  after  sand- 
hill, and  more  sand-hills  and  sand-ridges. 

"  Where  does  all  this  sand  come  from?" 
asked  Ben. 


A  STRANGE  COUNTRY          115 

But  Sam  had  no  answer  to  this  question. 
As  far  as  he  knew  it  had  always  been  there 
and  he  thought  it  would  take  the  wind  a  long 
time  to  blow  it  away.  For  the  wind  seemed 
to  be  always  building  up  one  hill  and  cutting 
down  another.  In  the  sides  of  some  hills,  the 
boys  discovered  great  holes,  fifty  feet  or  even 
more  than  a  hundred  feet  deep.  Some  of 
these  holes,  now  called  blow-holes,  were  bare 
pits,  in  others  grasses,  weeds,  and  bushes  had 
secured  a  footing  and  seemed  to  be  trying  to 
bind  the  sand  and  keep  the  wind  from  rolling 
it  over  the  top  to  the  next  hill. 

In  fact  the  whole  country  looked  like  a  re- 
gion where  wind  and  plants  had  waged  a  long 
and  bitter  warfare;  the  wind  trying  to  blow 
the  land  away,  while  grasses,  weeds,  and 
bushes  were  trying  hard  to  hold  it  in  place  and 
cover  it  with  a  green  carpet  as  they  had  done 
on  the  plains  and  in  the  country  farther  east. 
Thus  far  the  wind  still  had  the  better  of  the 
fight,  for  it  was  quite  plain  that  no  hill  had 
very  long  kept  the  same  shape,  but  the  foot 
of  many  of  them  was  well  covered  with  plants. 

On  one  point,  however,  the  boys  all  felt  en- 
tirely at  ease.  They  saw  that  they  would 


116      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

have  no  difficulty  in  finding  water.  They  had 
already  passed  several  small  lakes  and  ponds, 
and  had  noticed  several  springs,  and  had  even 
3rossed  two  or  three  small  streams.  Whether 
these  streams  grew  larger  and  finally  reached 
the  Platte  to  the  south  or  the  Niobrara  to  the 
north,  or  lost  themselves  among  the  count- 
less sand-hills,  the  lads  did  not  know. 

"I  thought  the  sand-hills  were  here,"  re- 
marked Al,  "  because  this  country  had  very 
little  rainfall,  but  if  that  were  true,  the  lakes 
and  streams  would  be  dry  now.  Then  why 
are  the  sand-hills  here,  if  it  is  not  on  account 
of  drought?" 

"Too  hard  a  question  for  me,"  Sam  admit- 
ted, looking  with  wonder  upon  the  weird,  fan- 
tastic scene  around  them.  "All  I  know  is 
that  they  are  here." 

"Say,  Sam,"  asked  Ben,  "do  you  suppose 
some  day  the  wind  will  blow  all  this  sand  into 
to  Platte?  If  it  does,  there  won't  be  any 
Platte.  It's  almost  choked  with  sand  now." 

"Ask  me  something  about  Indians,"  Sam 
answered  in  reply.  "I  am  not  a  professor  of 
geology." 


A  STRANGE  COUNTRY          117 

If  Sam  did  not  like  to  answer  questions,  he 
had  made  a  bad  suggestion  for  his  own  ease ; 
for  his  young  brother  and  cousin  apparently 
had  stored  up  a  good  many  questions  on  this 
very  subject. 

Where  did  he  think  Spotted  Wolf  was 
now!  Had  he  found  their  trail!  Would  he 
follow  them  clear  into  the  heart  of  the  sand- 
hills, or  would  he  lose  the  trail  and  give  it  up ! 
Was  he  a  brave  Indian!  Had  Sam  had  any 
trouble  with  him  last  year  I  Were  all  his  men 
bad  Indians  !  Did  it  hurt  much  to  be  hit  with 
an  arrow! 

"Now,  that  will  do,  that  will  do!"  Sam  fi- 
nally exclaimed  in  self-defense.  ' '  Do  you  fel- 
lows think  I'm  an  encyclopedia  on  Spotted 
Wolf  and  Indians  in  general! 

"I  hope  he  has  not  found  our  trail,  but  if  he 
has,  I  hope  that  a  sand-storm  will  bury  his 
bones  deep  down  under  the  biggest  hill.  He 
is  a  bad  Indian  and  ought  to  come  to  a  bad 
end.  He  is  the  one  Indian  I  know,  at  whom 
I  would  not  regret  drawing  a  bead,  if  I  had  to. 
Maybe  we  shall  learn  something  about  his  do- 
ings, when  we  reach  Fort  Laramie. 


118     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

"Now  keep  still  for  a  while,  so  I  don't  for- 
get that  we  came  in  here  to  look  for  a  hunting 
camp. ' ' 

"I  thought,"  Ben  blurted  out,  "we  came 
here  to  get  away  from  the  Indians?" 

"You  dry  up,  now,  youngster!"  Sam 
threatened.  "Or  I'll  chuck  you  head-first 
into  this  blow-hole." 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   HUNTING   CAMP 

AFTER  traveling  till  the  middle  of  the  after- 
noon, they  came  to  a  place,  where  a  lake  of 
considerable  size  lay  in  a  large  fine  meadow. 
Out  of  the  lake  ran  a  small  stream  and  there 
was  considerable  tree  growth  along  the 
stream  and  in  patches  and  pockets  along  the 
foot  of  the  hills. 

This  looked  like  a  good  place,  and  they  de- 
cided to  camp  there,  at  least,  for  the  night. 

After  they  had  eaten  supper  and  arranged 
everything  for  the  night,  Sam  took  the  dog 
with  him  and  went  back  a  mile  on  the  trail, 
where  he  climbed  the  highest  hill  and  care- 
fully looked  over  the  crest  with  his  glass  with- 
out exposing  himself.  He  had  learned  that 
the  price  of  safety  is  unremitting  watchful- 
ness, and  had  heard  of  too  many  parties  that 
had  come  to  grief  through  lack  of  caution. 

He  felt  reasonably  sure  that  no  enemy  was 
following  them,  but  he  also  knew  that  seeing 

119 


120     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

no  Indians  is  no  evidence  of  the  absence  of 
Indians.  He  scanned  the  country  for  miles 
around  him,  but  could  detect  no  sign  of  the 
presence  of  human  beings.  No  smoke  indi- 
cated any  camp,  and  the  game  he  saw  here  and 
there  -showed  no  sign  of  having  been  disturbed 
by  hunters.  He  returned  to  camp  shortly 
after  dark  and  told  the  boys  that  they  might 
go  to  sleep  and  feel  quite  safe. 

The  night  was  cloudy,  so  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  follow  a  trail  before  dawn.  They 
turned  the  horses  loose  but  again  observed 
the  precaution  of  hobbling  them. 

Sam,  feeling  the  responsibility  of  leader- 
ship, awoke  when  the  stars  were  still  shin- 
ing, but  he  had  enjoyed  a  deep  and  dream- 
less sleep  after  a  hard  day's  travel. 

Although  he  felt  that  Spotted  Wolf  had  not 
discovered  their  tracks,  he  nevertheless  felt 
it  his  duty  to  stand  guard  till  daylight.  Some 
other  Indians  might  have  seen  them  go  into 
camp  and  might  be  tempted  to  run  off  their 
good  horses;  and  to  be  left  horseless  in  the 
heart  of  the  sand-hills  would  be  a  serious  pre- 
dicament. 

He  took  his  rifle  and  pistols  and  walked 


THE  HUNTING  CAMP  121 

over  to  the  horses,  which  had  straggled  a  lit- 
tle way  west,  and  herded  them  slowly  back 
toward  the  camp.  To  his  own  saddle-horse 
he  tied  a  picket-rope  and  kept  within  reach  of 
it,  so  he  could  quickly  mount  the  animal  in 
case  of  danger. 

When  the  stars  began  to  fade  he  took  a  po- 
eition  close  to  the  side  of  his  horse,  and 
sharply  scanned  the  bushes  along  the  stream 
and  the  copses  of  brush  on  the  hills,  for  he 
knew  that  any  lurking  enemies  would  try  to 
approach  the  camp  under  such  natural  cover. 
However,  at  last,  the  big  red  disk  of  the  sun 
rose  out  of  the  sand-hills  and  Sam  knew  that 
for  the  present  they  were  safe. 

The  day  was  spent  in  making  the  camp 
habitable  and  safe.  For  the  first  time  on  the 
journey,  they  set  up  the  tent,  selecting  a 
shady  spot  in  a  small  grove  of  scrubby  box- 
elders  and  hackberries.  Outside  of  the  tent, 
on  all  four  sides,  they  placed  the  packs  far 
enough  away  from  the  tent  to  enable  a  man 
to  lie  down  between  the  tent  and  the  packs. 
In  the  center  of  the  small  grove,  they  built  a 
corral  for  the  horses,  and  between  the  tent 
and  the  corral  Ben  and  Dick  built  a  small 


122     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

brush  house  for  Prince.  To  make  the  camp 
still  more  secure,  they  dug  half  a  dozen  pits 
in  a  circle  just  within  the  edge  of  the  grove, 
while  between  the  pits  they  threw  up  piles 
and  windrows  of  brush,  so  a  man  could,  with 
fair  safety,  crawl  from  one  pit  to  another. 
When  their  fort  was  completed,  they  felt  that, 
in  case  of  attack,  they  could  hold  their  own 
against  quite  a  number  of  Indians. 

The  construction  of  cover  of  this  kind  was 
well  known  and  quite  generally  practiced  by 
the  Rocky  Mountain  trappers  of  those  days, 
and  even  the  Indians  have  been  known  to 
build  crude  defenses  in  their  inter-tribal  war- 
fare. 

The  camp  being  now  as  well  concealed  and 
protected  as  possible,  Sam  and  Ben  set  out 
the  next  day  to  hunt  in  earnest. 

They  followed  the  little  stream  issuing 
from  their  lake,  and  about  a  mile  from  camp 
they  came  upon  a  small  herd  of  about  a  dozen 
buffaloes.  At  a  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a 
mile,  they  dismounted,  Ben  remaining  with 
the  horses  and  Sam  carefully  creeping  up 
within  easy  range  under  cover  of  some  wil- 
low bushes.  The  animals  had  probably 


THE  HUNTING  CAMP  123 

ranged  undisturbed  in  the  sand-hills  all  sum- 
mer and  were  not  at  all  wild,  so  that  by  two 
careful  shots  in  the  shoulder,  Sam  dropped 
two  fat  animals,  before  the  others  became 
alarmed.  The  young  hunter  was  careful  not 
to  select  any  large  animals,  because  he  knew 
that  their  meat  was  nearly  always  tough  and 
lean.  He  did  not  try  to  kill  more  than  two 
because  he  knew  that  they  could  not  well 
take  care  of  any  more  meat  before  it  would 
spoil  in  the  warm  summer  weather. 

Cutting  up  and  dressing  a  buffalo  is  dif- 
ferent from  dressing  a  beef. 

The  animal  was  set  upon  his  knees,  so  to 
speak,  and  the  skin  was  split  along  the  back, 
worked  down  on  either  side  and  spread  out  on 
the  ground. 

The  fat  meat  of  the  hump  was  one  of  the 
delicacies.  The  ribs  roasted  over  a  hot  fire 
of  live  coals  were  also  much  relished  by  the 
old  plainsmen  and  trappers.  All  the  meat 
that  corresponds  to  the  various  cuts  of  beef 
such  as  sirloin  steak  and  round  steak  fur- 
nished valuable  food;  white  men,  however, 
often  wasted  a  great  deal  of  it. 

The  tongue  was  considered  the  greatest 


124     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

delicacy  and  was  always  taken,  even  by  the 
skin-hunters.  The  tongues  were  either  eaten 
fresh  or  dried  and  smoked.  In  the  heyday  of 
the  fur  trade  from  1832  to  184c  one  steam- 
boat might  bring  to  St.  Louis  10,000  to  30,000 
buffalo-tongues  bought  from  Indians  and 
white  hunters  on  the  Yellowstone  and  upper 
Missouri. 

The  white  trappers  considered  a  strip  of 
luscious  fat  a  great  delicacy.  It  was  called 
"depuyer"  and  extended  along  each  side  of 
the  backbone  right  under  the  skin  from  the 
shoulder  to  the  hips.  When  this  was  dried 
and  gently  smoked  it  kept  indefinitely.  De- 
puyer  was  eaten  like  bread  with  the  lean  meat 
by  both  Indians  and  mountain  men,  for  men 
who  lived  in  the  open  and  underwent  great 
physical  exertion  always  felt  starved  if  their 
food  did  not  contain  plenty  of  fat. 

Sam  and  Ben  saved  all  the  meat  of  their 
buffalo  beeves,  the  big  sheets  of  suet  inside, 
as  well  as  the  liver  and  heart,  leaving  only 
the  large  bones  to  be  picked  clean  by  wolves 
and  coyotes. 

When  the  meat  was  all  secured,  they  tied 
it  in  the  skins  and  packed  it  to  camp,  but 


THE  HUNTING  CAMP  125 

they  had  to  make  two  trips,  before  they  had 
it  all  safe  in  camp.  Here  Al  and  Dick  had 
built  a  platform  of  poles  and  on  this  they 
piled  it  up  for  the  night,  covering  it  with  the 
skins  to  prevent  any  sand  from  being  blown 
on  it. 

The  boys '  supper  that  evening  was  a  feast, 
such  as  would  have  made  glad  the  heart  of 
any  old  Indian  warrior.  There  was  boiled 
buffalo-tongue  with  plenty  of  hot  broth  sea- 
soned with  a  little  salt  and  pepper  and  a 
handful  of  the  little  wild  onion  bulbs,  which 
grow  on  top  of  the  stalks.  There  was  a  big 
panful  of  fried  liver  and  bacon;  and  on  the 
sweet,  black  "soup,"  strong  and  fragrant  cof- 
fee, there  was  no  restriction.  For  a  white 
man,  only  one  thing  was  lacking,  bread. 

"Eat  all  the  meat  you  want,  and  drink  all 
the  white  soup  and  black  soup  you  like," 
Sam  told  them.  ' '  But  this  will  be  a  breadless 
camp.  Flour  is  worth  here  about  a  dollar 
a  pound.  We  might  as  well  learn  to  live 
like  Indians  and  trappers,  for  we  are  now 
truly  in  the  Indian  country. ' ' 

While  the  boys  feasted,  Prince  also  had  his 
share ;  for  Ben  had  trimmed  out  several  ribs 


126     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

for  him,  but  had  purposely  left  a  good  deal 
of  meat  on  the  bones. 

All  the  boys,  except  Sam,  slept  soundly 
after  their  feast,  but  Prince  had  a  truly  bad 
night  of  it.  Not  because  he  had  eaten  too 
much,  but  because  his  wild  brethren  of  the 
sand-hills  had  smelled  the  big  pile  of  fresh 
meat  and  had  come  to  make  a  feast. 

Before  the  sun  had  set,  a  pack  of  hungry 
gray  wolves  had  gathered  at  the  two  buffalo 
skeletons,  and  when  they  departed  a  pack 
of  more  hungry  coyotes  whetted  their  appe- 
tites on  the  very  little  that  was  left. 

Unfortunately  for  the  peace  of  Prince  both 
wolves  and  coyotes,  soon  after  dark,  began 
to  howl  among  the  hills  around  the  camp. 
Soon  they  grew  bolder  and  sneaked  close  up 
to  camp,  so  the  horses  became  restless  in 
their  corral.  And  from  that  time  on  till  sun- 
rise, Prince  was  in  a  rage  of  indignation. 
Now  he  chased  a  saucy  coyote  or  two,  now 
he  growled  fiercely  at  a  bold  gray  wolf.  No 
sooner  had  he  driven  the  intruders  away  from 
one  side  of  the  camp,  than  they  approached 
stealthily  on  the  other  side. 

Although  Sam  knew  perfectly  well  that 


THE  HUNTING  CAMP  127 

neither  wolves  nor  coyotes  were  at  all  likely 
to  attack  their  meat-pile,  even  he  became  un- 
easy, because  he  feared  that  the  howling 
around  camp  might  not  all  come  from  the 
throats  of  wolves  and  coyotes.  So  he  took  a 
shotgun  and  slowly  walked  around  on  the 
edge  of  the  grove  peering  into  the  moonlit 
night  and  straining  his  ears  for  sounds  of  In- 
dians, who  deemed  it  a  feat  of  bravery  to  steal 
horses  from  careless  white  hunters  and  trap- 
pers. 

After  an  hour  he  became  convinced  that  no 
Indians  were  trying  to  approach  their  camp. 
He  thought  of  tying  up  the  mad,  restless  dog, 
but  he  knew  that  such  a  measure  would  only 
make  Prince  growl  and  whine  still  more,  for, 
unlike  many  a  boy,  Prince  took  his  duties 
seriously. 

When  daylight  came,  the  wolves  and  coy- 
otes dispersed,  and  Prince  retired  to  his  brush 
house  and  stretched  himself  on  his  canvas  bed 
with  the  feeling  that  he  had  done  his  duty. 

"Roll  out,  you  fellows!"  Sam  called  to  the 
other  boys  at  sunrise,  "and  get  breakfast. 
Some  day  a  cyclone  will  drop  you  all  in  the 
Missouri  before  you  wake  up.  Call  me  and 


128     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Prince,  when  the  meat  is  cooked.  If  it  hadn't 
been  for  us  the  wolves  would  have  carried  you 
away  last  night." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  ELK   HUNT 

THE  next  few  days  were  busy  ones  for  the 
boys,  but  days  of  ease  and  plenty  for  the 
horses. 

Sam  and  Al  cut  the  lean  buffalo  meat  into 
thin  strips,  while  the  two  younger  boys  hung 
the  strips  of  red  meat  on  scaffoldings  of 
poles.  Under  some  of  the  meat,  they  kept 
a  slow  fire  going,  while  other  strips  were  be- 
ing dried  in  the  sun.  The  latter  were  to  be 
made  into  pemmican,  the  bread  of  the  plains 
and  mountains  of  those  days. 

As  soon  as  a  lot  of  meat  was  thoroughly 
dried,  the  boys  pounded  it  into  a  fine  pulp  on 
logs  and  stumps  selected  for  the  purpose. 
The  Indian  women  used  flat  rocks  and  stones 
in  the  making  of  pemmican,  but  rocks  and 
stones  were  not  to  be  found  at  the  camp  in 
the  sand-hills,  so  the  boys  used  logs  and  axes 
instead. 

When  a  mass  of  this  pulverized  meat  was 

129 


130      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

ready,  it  was  placed  in  a  bag  of  rawhide  and 
hot  melted  suet  was  poured  over  it.  To  some 
of  the  bags  the  boys  added  a  little  sugar  and 
some  service-berries,  which  Ben  and  Dick  had 
gathered.  This  made  the  delicious  berry 
pemmican,  and  Sam  said  this  was  going  to 
furnish  some  of  their  Sunday  dinners. 

Meat  prepared  in  this  way  kept  indefinitely, 
and  was  one  of  the  most  nourishing  foods. 

When  all  the  meat  was  dried  and  the  pem- 
mican was  neatly  packed  in  bags,  Sam  and  Al 
turned  their  attention  to  their  outfit.  Some 
of  their  clothing  was  wearing  out,  much  of 
it  was  sadly  in  need  of  washing,  and  sad- 
dles and  packs  needed  careful  overhauling. 
The  boys  were  not  equipped  to  shoe  their 
horses,  but  Sam  tightened  some  of  the  shoes, 
and  trimmed  some  of  the  hoofs  from  which 
the  shoes  had  been  lost. 

During  all  this  time  the  horses  had  one 
grand  holiday.  There  was  an  abundance  of 
grass  and  brush.  If  the  sun  grew  too  hot, 
they  sought  the  shade  of  the  camp  grove, 
where  they  lazily  switched  their  tails,  more 
from  habit  than  to  drive  away  flies;  and  no 
mosquitoes  molested  them  during  the  cool 


THE  ELK  HUNT  131 

night.  They  all  began  to  look  sleek,  and  even 
the  older  ones  kicked  up  their  heels  and  lit- 
tered a  lusty  whinny  as  if  they  meant  to 
say,  "This  is  a  good  country.  What's  the 
use  of  tramping  all  the  way  to  Oregon?" 

If  the  horses  expressed  their  contentment 
in  their  simple  equine  manner,  Ben  and  Dick 
approved  quite  strongly  of  the  country,  which 
had  looked  so  forbidding. 

"If  our  families  had  not  gone  ahead  to 
Oregon,"  they  said,  "we  might  as  well  stay 
here.  Each  family  could  pick  a  big  meadow 
for  raising  horses  and  cattle.  We  boys  could 
drive  them  to  Fort  Leavenworth  or  Independ- 
ence every  year,  and  then  we  could  hunt  all 
kinds  of  game  in  the  sand-hills." 

'  *  Can 't  Dick  and  I  go  hunting  by  ourselves 
some  day?  We  want  to  get  an  elk,"  begged 
Ben. 

"What  do  you  think,  Al?"  asked  Sam;  "is 
it  safe  to  let  the  kids  go  ? " 

Al  thought  it  was  quite  safe  as  they  had 
seen  no  sign  of  Indians  in  the  hills. 

The  two  small  boys  were  so  eager  to  go 
out  by  themselves  that  they  persuaded  Sam 
to  let  them  go  that  afternoon.  Feeling  like 


132     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

real,  big  Nimrods  of  the  plains  they  started 
in  high  spirits. 

"We'll  have  some  elk  pemmican  all  our 
own,"  planned  Ben.  "Sam  said  you  can 
make  pemmican  of  deer  or  elk,  only  not  so 
much  as  of  a  buffalo." 

They  rode  a  few  miles  west  of  camp  to  a 
winding  swale,  where  they  had  several  times 
observed  a  small  herd  of  elk.  On  approach- 
ing the  place,  however,  no  wild  animals  were 
in  sight. 

"Now,  I  do  wish  we  had  taken  the  dog," 
Ben  remarked  to  Dick.  "I  did  not  take  him 
because  I  was  afraid  he  would  chase  them 
away.  If  we  had  him  now,  he  might  find 
them  for  us." 

Ben  had  scarcely  spoken  the  last  word, 
when  about  half  a  dozen  elk,  cows,  yearlings 
and  calves,  suddenly  sprang  up  behind  some 
low  bushes  and  raced  away  at  great  speed; 
and  two  random  shots,  which,  in  their  eager- 
ness, the  young  hunters  foolishly  sent  after 
them,  only  made  them  run  the  faster. 

The  young  Nimrods  were  now  thoroughly 
excited,  and  seeing  the  elk  disappear  over  a 
low  ridge  of  sand,  they  followed  them  in  the 


THE  ELK  HUNT  133 

hope  of  getting  a  better  chance  to  approach 
them,  not  realizing  that  by  their  own  care- 
lessness, they  had  lost  the  very  best  chance. 

When  they  reached  the  highest  point  of 
the  ridge,  they  again  saw  the  elk  on  a  mea- 
dow about  a  mile  away;  but  they  were  evi- 
dently watching  the  hunters,  and  the  boys 
planned  to  circle  around  among  the  hills  and 
try  to  approach  them  from  the  other  side. 

Making  this  detour  took  nearly  an  hour, 
and  when  they  finally  came  within  sight  of  the 
meadow  the  elk  were  gone.  Dick  did  not 
think  this  was  the  meadow  they  had  tried  to 
reach.  They  should  go  about  half  a  mile 
farther  in  a  direction  he  pointed  out. 

" Behind  those  round  hills,"  he  claimed, 
"you  will  find  our  elk.  The  tracks  on  this 
meadow  were  made  by  other  elk." 

Ben  felt  so  little  sure  that  they  had  found 
the  right  meadow,  for  all  the  hills  began  to 
look  very  much  alike,  that  he  was  ready  to 
follow  Dick's  lead. 

When  they  had  ridden  around  the  hills 
Dick  had  indicated,  they  found,  to  their  con- 
sternation, no  meadow  and  no  elk,  but  only 
more  sand-hills ;  and  to  increase  their  confu- 


134      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

sion,  it  was  rapidly  getting  dark  and  the  sky 
was  cloudy. 

"Look  at  your  compass,  Ben,"  the  younger 
boy  asked  anxiously.  "Where  are  we?  We 
turned  around  so  much  I  don't  know  which 
way  to  go  back  to  camp." 

Ben  searched  through  all  his  pockets,  but 
the  compass  was  gone. 

"I  must  have  pulled  it  out  with  my  hand- 
kerchief," he  explained.  "I  haven't  it." 

In  this  new  difficulty  they  forgot  about  the 
elk  they  had  missed.  In  what  direction  was 
camp  1  They  must  return  at  once,  for  in  half 
an  hour  it  would  be  dark. 

After  some  discussion,  they  started  out, 
both  hoping  that  from  the  top  of  the  next 
ridge  they  would  be  able  to  see  their  camp. 
Al  would  surely  have  made  a  camp  fire  to 
show  them  the  way.  But  their  hearts  sank, 
when  from  the  high  ridge,  they  could  see 
nothing  but  more  ridges  and  hills  of  sand  in 
every  direction  without  a  sign  of  life. 

By  the  time  they  had  reached  the  foot  of  a 
high  hill  ahead  of  them,  it  was  dark ;  too  dark 
to  distinguish  any  longer  the  patches  of  grass 


THE  ELK  HUNT  135 

and  bushes  on  the  sand-hills,  except  on  the  hill 
directly  in  front  of  them. 

It  came  to  them  with  a  feeling  of  horror 
that  they  were  lost ;  lost  on  a  pitch-dark  night 
in  the  maze  of  the  uninhabited  sand-hills.  In 
their  bewilderment  they  had  lost  all  sense 
of  direction,  and  the  wind,  which  might  have 
given  them  some  clew,  had  died  down. 

"Let's  climb  the  hill,"  suggested  Dick. 
"Maybe  we  can  see  the  camp-fire." 

They  tied  their  horses  to  some  bushes  and 
roots  of  sand-cherries,  and  began  to  climb 
over  loose  sand,  through  bushes  and  over 
tufts  of  tall  grass. 

Suddenly  the  ground  gave  way  under  their 
feet,  and  they  tumbled  and  slid  into  a  deep, 
black  hole  of  loose  sand,  fifty  feet  or  more 
deep. 

When  they  reached  the  bottom  both  spit 
the  sand  out  of  their  mouths  and  shook  sand, 
and  more  sand  out  of  their  hair  and  ears. 

"We're  alive,  Dick,"  exclaimed  Ben,  "but 
we've  tumbled  into  a  blow-hole.  How  in  the 
world  can  we  get  back  to  our  horses?  Sam 
and  Al  will  think  the  Indians  caught  us. ' ' 


136     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

To  climb  out  of  the  blow-hole  the  way  they 
had  come  in  was  impossible,  but  they  man- 
aged to  pick  their  way  out  on  the  opposite 
side,  and  then  hurried  around  the  hill  to  the 
place,  where  they  had  tied  the  horses. 

They  heard  one  of  the  horses  neighing  and 
trying  to  break  away.  When  they  reached 
him,  they  found  that  the  other  one,  Dick's 
horse,  was  gone,  but  they  could  just  hear  him 
neigh  in  the  distance. 

"We  must  both  get  on  my  horse,  quick!" 
Ben  cried,  "and  try  to  catch  him." 

Jim  seemed  to  know  just  where  Buck  had 
gone  and  seemed  anxious  to  catch  up  with 
him,  but  was  unable  to  do  so,  for  Buck's  call 
became  more  and  more  distant. 

Then  they  heard  a  shot  and  replied  to  it 
with  one  of  their  own  guns. 

"You  are  great  hunters!"  Sam  called  out, 
when  the  hatless  boys  drew  up  at  the  camp- 
fire.  "What  has  happened?  Were  the  In- 
dians after  you  ? ' ' 

"No,  we  didn't  see  any  Indians,"  the 
hunters  explained  humbly,  "but  we  got  aw- 
fully turned  around.  Sam,  you  can't  see  a 
thing  amongst  these  beastly  sand-hills." 


THE  ELK  HUNT  137 

"You  fool  youngsters,"  Sam  laughed. 
"The  next  time  you  lose  camp,  give  your 
horses  the  reins  and  let  them  go.  Al,  they 
don't  even  know  that  the  horses  took  them 
back  to  camp." 

"Al,  have  you  any  supper  for  us?"  asked 
Ben.  "We  are  awfully  hungry.  But  we 
have  to  take  a  swim  first.  We  are  all  full  of 
sand,  all  over." 

After  this  experience,  Ben  and  Dick  were 
quite  willing  to  go  hunting  with  one  of  the 
older  boys. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

LOOKING   FOR   THE   TRAIL. 

THE  objects  for  which  Sam  had  led  his 
company  into  the  sand-hills  had  now  been  at- 
tained. 

They  had  eluded  the  Indians  and  had  se- 
cured all  the  meat  they  could  well  carry 
without  impeding  their  travel,  and  both 
horses  and  men  were  in  fine  condition. 

A  few  days  after  the  elk  hunt  everything 
was  ready,  and  they  left  the  camp  at  which 
they  had  spent  some  very  happy  weeks. 

All  four  of  them  were  in  high  spirits  as 
they  wound  in  and  out  among  the  sand-hills, 
following  a  general  westerly  direction.  In 
this  way,  Sam  calculated,  they  would  avoid 
the  big  Crow  camp,  but  would  again  strike 
the  Oregon  Trail  some  twenty-five  or  fifty 
miles  west  of  the  point,  where  they  had  left 
it,  as  the  trail  followed  the  North  Platte  in 
a  northwesterly  direction  for  two  hundred 
miles. 

138 


LOOKING  FOE  THE  TRAIL      139 

One  thing  they  had  expected  to  do  in  camp 
they  had  not  done.  They  carried  with  them 
a  few  choice  books,  a  Bible,  a  Shakespeare 
and  an  account  of  Oregon,  and  Al  had  taken 
with  him  a  treatise  on  physics,  called  natural 
philosophy  in  those  days.  He  also  had 
packed  away  a  magnet  and  a  good  compass. 
But  they  had  never  looked  at  a  book.  The 
week-days  had  been  too  full  of  work,  and  on 
Sundays  they  had  just  rested  and  talked  and 
enjoyed  the  glory  of  the  summer  days  and 
nights. 

Although  their  horses  were  fresh  and  ac- 
tive the  boys  found  traveling  through  the 
wilderness  without  following  a  trail  far  more 
laborious  than  they  had  expected.  At  all 
times  they  had  to  watch  their  direction,  and 
when  they  started  in  the  morning,  they  had 
no  idea  where  they  might  camp  at  night. 

Game  was  abundant.  Buffalo  and  elk,  deer 
and  antelope  stood  and  gazed  at  them  as  if 
wondering  at  the  strange  creatures  that  had 
strayed  into  their  solitudes. 

The  younger  boys  were  much  tempted,  like 
most  small  boys,  to  fire  at  the  animals  that 
stood  or  traveled  within  such  easy  range, 


140      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

but   Sam  would  have  no   foolish  gunnery. 

"We  shall  meet  enough  troublesome  In- 
dians," he  explained,  "  without  telling  them 
that  we  are  coming.  And  as  for  shooting  at 
game  that  we  don't  want  and  could  not  use, 
there  will  be  no  such  senseless  and  cruel 
butchery  by  this  party! 

"If  either  of  you  fire  at  any  bird  or  beast, 
just  to  see  if  you  can  hit  it,  you  will  do  an 
extra  night  of  guard  duty  and  travel  on  one 
meal  a  day." 

Sam  and  Al  had  gathered  a  great  deal  of 
information  about  the  Oregon  Trail  both  at 
Fort  Leavenworth  and  at  Independence,  but 
the  two  younger  boys  were  oppressed  by  the 
great  solitude,  which  seemed  to  be  the  undis- 
puted country  of  the  wild  animals,  big  and 
little,  grass-eaters  and  flesh-eaters,  but  where 
not  a  sign  was  found  of  either  red  man  or 
white. 

"Sam,"  asked  Dick  timidly  after  they  had 
eaten  their  supper  at  the  first  night's  camp, 
and  when  the  stars  were  glittering  above  and 
the  wolves  uttering  their  doleful  howls  all 
around  them,  * '  do  you  know  where  we  are  ? ' ' 

"No,    Dickie,"    answered    Sam    with    a 


LOOKING  FOR  THE  TRAIL      141 

kindly  assurance  in  his  voice,  "I  don't  know 
exactly  where  we  are,  but  I  know  that  we 
have  been  going  in  the  right  direction." 

I  'Are    you    sure    we    can    find    the    trail 
again?"  Dick  resumed  his  anxious  question- 
ing. 

"We  can't  miss  it,  Dickie,  any  more  than 
we  can  miss  the  Rocky  Mountains.  You 
know  it  is  a  plain  wagon-road  of  one  or  sev- 
eral wagon  tracks,  very  different  from  the 
buffalo-trails  and  the  travois-trails  of  the 
Indians. 

II  It  is  a  wagon-road  across  the  continent, 
and  there  is  only  one  other  trail  like  it,  -the 
Santa  Fe  Trail." 

"How  far  are  we  from  it?"  asked  Ben, 
who  also  had  a  feeling  that  Sam  might  be 
as  badly  lost  as  he  and  Dick  had  been. 

"Somewhere  between  twenty-five  and  fifty 
miles  north  of  it,"  Sam  estimated. 

"Then  why  don't  we  go  straight  south," 
Dick  wondered,  "till  we  strike  it?  I — I'm 
afraid,  we'll  all  get  lost." 

"Don't  worry,  lads,"  Sam  explained  with 
a  kindly  smile.  "I  have  never  been  in  this 
country  before,  but  we  are  not  lost.  Look 


142     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

at  this  triangle  I  am  drawing  in  the  sand 
here. 


-Hunting  Camp 


North  Plautte 


*  *  The  short  east  side  of  it  is  our  route  from 
the  North  Platte  to  our  hunting  camp.  The 
long  south  side  is  the  Oregon  Trail  which 
runs  along  the  north  bank  of  the  North 
Platte.  The  long  northern  side  of  the  tri- 
angle is  the  route  we  are  now  following. 
When  we  come  to  the  point  where  the  two 
long  sides  meet,  we  shall  strike  the  trail. 

"If  we  went  straight  south,  we  should,  of 
course,  strike  the  trail,  but  we  should  lose 
time  and  we  might  fall  in  again  with  the  big 
camp  of  the  Crows." 

The  two  lads  thought  they  understood,  but 
Dick  still  had  a  feeling  of  being  lost  in  a 
trackless  wilderness. 

"But  if  we  went  too  far,  we  might  miss 
the  trail  and  the  river  after  all,"  he  feared. 

"No,  lads,  we  couldn't,"  Sam  assured 
them  patiently.  "The  trail,  you  must  re- 
member follows  the  North  Platte  for  two 


LOOKING  FOR  THE  TRAIL      143 

hundred  miles.  And  the  North  Platte  is  not 
a  miserable  little  dry  creek,  it  is  a  big  river; 
which  in  several  places,  flows  in  a  deep  rocky 
canyon. 

"We  could  not  miss  it  any  more  than  you 
could  miss  the  Ohio,  the  Missouri  or  the  Mis- 
sissippi, if  you  were  traveling  toward  either 
of  them. 

"So  you  can  go  to  sleep  without  fear.  I 
am  sure  that  we  shall  strike  our  trail  and  our 
river,  although  I  do  not  know  just  when  and 
where." 

On  the  following  day,  they  came  out  of  the 
sand-hills  and  entered  a  rather  dry  and 
broken  country. 

One  more  day  they  went  straight  west  with- 
out finding  a  wagon-trail  or  a  large  river,  and 
Sam  saw  that  Ben  and  Dick  were  again  think- 
ing that  he  was  lost. 

Toward  noon  of  the  fourth  day,  Sam  and 
Al  saw  through  the  glass  what  seemed  to  be 
a  line  of  dark  pine-trees,  and  in  the  afternoon 
Sam  told  the  small  lads  to  ride  ahead  and 
act  as  advance  scouts. 

"Take  the  dog  with  you,"  he  told  them, 
"and  if  you  see  Indians  don't  start  a  fight 


144      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

with  them,  but  come  back  and  tell  us  how 
many  there  are." 

"Yes,  I  mean  it,"  he  added  when  the  lads 
hesitated.  '  * Eide  ahead  and  make  yourselves 
useful.  Ride  ahead  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile;  Prince  will  see  to  it  that  the  coyotes 
don't  bite  you." 

"Ah,  we  aren't  scared  of  coyotes,"  Ben 
spoke  up,  "nor  of  Indians  either.  Come  on, 
Dick!" 

However,  in  spite  of  their  assumed  brav- 
ado, the  two  lads  proceeded  with  great  cau- 
tion. Every  gully,  every  rock  and  small 
butte  they  approached  with  care,  and  from 
time  to  time  they  looked  back  to  make  sure 
that  their  big  brothers  were  following  them 
with  the  meat  and  the  horses,  for  they  had 
a  feeling  that  Sam  and  Al  were  going  to 
play  some  trick  on  them. 

They  had  been  teased  a  good  deal  about 
their  elk-hunt,  and  had  come  to  believe  that 
Sam  knew  they  would  get  lost,  and  that  he 
had  let  them  go  just  to  have  some  fun  with 
them. 

Several  times  they  stopped  as  if  they  were 
going  to  wait,  but  every  time  Sam  motioned 


LOOKING  FOR  THE  TRAIL      145 

to  them  to  ride  on,  and  this  made  them  still 
more  careful  and  suspicious. 

"Dick,  I  bet  you,  they  are  going  to  fool 
us  again  or  scare  us,"  Ben  was  sure.  "But 
we'll  just  fool  them  this  time." 

They  were  now  approaching  some  scat- 
tered yellow  pines  and  red  cedars,  which 
seemed  to  be  growing  on  rough  rocky  ground. 

"Look  out,  Ben,"  Dick  cautioned,  "there 
may  be  Indians  hidden  among  the  trees. 
We  had  better  stop  here." 

"Ah,  come  on,"  Ben  replied.  "They 
won't  shoot  us  right  away.  Indians  nearly 
always  talk,  before  they  begin  to  fight. 
Sam  and  Al  will  laugh  at  us,  if  we  stop. ' ' 

When  they  had  passed  a  few  scattered 
cedar-bushes  they  came  to  a  sudden  halt, 
threw  their  horses  around,  raced  back  as  fast 
as  the  horses  would  go,  and  yelled  and 
shouted  like  wild  Indians. 

Sam  and  Al  acted  very  much  alarmed. 
They  got  their  rifles  and  pistols  ready  and 
called : 

"Did  you  see  them?  How  many  are 
there?" 

But  Ben  and  Dick  did  not  answer.    They 


146     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

danced  and  pranced  around  and  yelled  at  the 
top  of  their  shrill  voices:  "Oregon  Trail! 
Oregon  Trail!  We've  found  the  Trail!" 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

JOHN  COLTER'S  ADVENTURE 

THE  two  younger  lads  were  as  happy  as  if 
they  had  already  overcome  all  the  dangers 
of  the  long  journey,  but  Sam  knew  only  too 
well  that  they  had  just  entered  upon  the  most 
dangerous  part  of  the  trail. 

They  still  had  to  pass  for  fully  two  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  through  the  country  of  the 
Crows,  and  into  this  country  the  Blackfeet 
made  frequent  raids  for  the  purpose  of  steal- 
ing horses  and  taking  scalps.  For  the  Black- 
feet  were  the  Ishmaelites  of  the  Plains,  war- 
ring at  all  times  against  both  red  men  and 
white  men. 

In  fact  the  Blackfeet  were  the  only  tribes 
who  may  be  said  to  have  been  almost  con- 
tinually hostile  to  the  whites,  from  the  time 
they  first  met  the  expedition  of  Lewis  and 
Clark  until  the  extermination  of  the  buffalo 
compelled  all  the  Plains  tribes  to  make  peace 
with  the  white  race. 

147 


148     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

The  other  Plains  Indians  were  generally 
not  hostile  as  tribes,  although  they  might  be 
dangerous  to  small  parties  of  whites,  and 
members  of  the  tribes  might  be  guilty  of 
murder  and  robbery.  Men  who  were  reso- 
lute and  well-armed  and  understood  Indian 
ways  and  Indian  character,  could  travel  and 
hunt  in  the  Indian  country  with  a  fair  degree 
of  safety,  if  they  were  at  the  same  time  al- 
ways watchful  and  fair  in  their  intercourse 
with  the  Indians. 

The  Indians,  like  boys  and  soldiers,  had  a 
high  regard  for  a  combination  of  bravery, 
kindness,  justice,  and  truthfulness,  and  men 
who  by  these  characteristics  had  won  their 
respect  and  affection  could  generally  handle 
even  the  most  savage  tribes,  except  in  times 
of  open  warfare. 

This  was,  however,  not  the  case  with  the 
Blackfeet.  No  trader,  frontiersman,  or  fur 
company  ever  gained  their  loyal  friendship 
in  the  stormy  and  lawless  days  of  the  west- 
ern fur  trade.  Traders,  trappers  or  trav- 
elers who  fell  in  with  a  party  of  Blackfeet 
were  always  in  danger  of  losing  not  only 
their  property  but  their  lives. 


JOHN  COLTER'S  ADVENTURE     149 

Many  a  trapper  who  followed  the  lure  of 
the  beaver  to  the  rich  fur  streams  of  the 
Blackfeet  lost  his  own  scalp  in  addition  to 
the  hard-earned  pelts  of  his  game.  No 
stone  or  rude  cross  marks  the  place  where 
these  men  fell,  for  the  wolves  have  scattered 
their  bones. 

If  a  man  hunted  with  too  small  a  company, 
or  was  too  poorly  armed,  or  relaxed  in 
watchfulness,  the  relentless  foes  who  waged 
war  in  winter  as  well  as  in  summer,  on  foot 
and  on  horseback,  robbed  him  of  horses  and 
goods  and  carried  away  his  scalp  as  a  token 
of  victory.  Only  large  parties  of  well-armed 
and  experienced  men  could  travel  or  trap  in 
the  Blackfeet  country  for  any  length  of  time 
with  a  fair  prospect  of  ever  coming  out  again. 

The  Indians  whom  the  traders  and  trap- 
pers called  Blackfeet  really  belonged  to  four 
distinct  bands:  The  Blackfeet  proper,  or 
Siksika;  the  Piegan;  the  Bloods;  and  the 
Gros  Ventres  of  the  Prairie. 

Of  these  four  bands  the  Gros  Ventres  were 
the  most  relentless  in  their  hostility  to  the 
whites.  Small  bands  of  trappers  in  the  Gros 
Ventre  country  were  never  safe,  but,  in  spite 


150     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

of  this  well-known  danger,  these  adventurers 
were  always  lured  into  courting  death  by  the 
rich  beaver  streams  of  the  Blackf  eet  country. 

The  Gros  Ventres,  or  Atsina,  also  often 
called  in  the  old  journals  Gros  Ventres  of  the 
Prairie,  were  really  not  Blackfeet  at  all  but 
were  Arapahoes  who  lived  a  long  time  ago 
in  Western  Minnesota.  In  the  great  west- 
ward migration  of  Indian  tribes,  they  became 
separated  from  their  kinsmen  and  joined 
the  Blackfeet  on  the  upper  Missouri,  in  the 
present  state  of  Montana,  while  the  rest  of 
the  tribe,  known  as  Arapahoes  found  a  home 
in  the  present  state  of  Colorado  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  Arkansas.  The  Gros  Ventres 
of  the  Prairie,  however,  always  retained  their 
Arapaho  language,  and  from  time  to  time 
paid  a  great  visit  to  their  kinsmen  farther 
south. 

On  these  journeys  they  fought  many  bat- 
tles with  their  Indian  enemies  as  well  as  with 
white  men,  who  happened  to  fall  in  their 
way. 

Many  were  the  stories  of  battle  and  death 
and  of  hairtreadth  escapes  that  were  told 
and  retold  at  the  camp  fires  and  at  the  great 


JOHN  COLTER'S  ADVENTURE  151 

rendezvous  during  the  days  of  the  Oregon 
and  the  Santa  Fe  Trail. 

One  of  the  most  marvelous  of  these 
stories  is  the  adventure  of  John  Colter  which 
happened  at  the  time  when  the  upper  Mis- 
souri country  was  first  reached  by  the  St. 
Louis  fur-trader,  Manual  Lisa. 

Colter,  with  a  companion  named  Potts,  was 
trapping  on  a  creek  that  runs  into  the  Jef- 
ferson River,  one  of  the  three  forks  of  the 
Missouri. 

Early  one  morning,  while  they  were  visit- 
ing their  traps,  they  were  surprised  by  a 
large  party  of  about  five  hundred  Blackfeet. 
Potts  was  killed  at  once,  while  Colter  was 
stripped  naked  and  was  given  a  chance  to 
run  for  his  life.  He  knew  the  Blackfeet  lan- 
guage and  told  the  chief  that  he  was  a  very 
poor  runner,  so  the  chief  gave  him  a  start 
of  about  four  hundred  yards,  and  told  him  to 
save  himself  if  he  could. 

The  Blackfeet  warriors  set  up  a  hellish 
yell,  as  Colter  started  for  the  Jefferson  River, 
running  as  he  had  never  run  before.  Away 
he  raced  barefooted  over  sharp  grass  and 
stones  and  the  horrible  spiny  cactus.  Three 


152      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

miles  he  ran  like  a  hunted  antelope  before  he 
dared  to  look  back. 

When  he  did  turn  around  he  saw  the  In- 
dians strung  out  far  behind  him,  except  one 
man,  armed  with  a  spear.  He  ran  two  miles 
more  before  he  again  looked  back.  Now  the 
spearman  was  within  twenty  yards  of  him. 

The  Blackfoot  now  tried  to  throw  his 
spear,  but  was  so  exhausted  that  he  fell  and 
broke  the  spear.  This  gave  Colter  fresh 
hopes.  He  rushed  back,  killed  the  Indian 
with  the  broken  spear  and  again  started  for 
the  river  about  a  mile  off. 

When  the  nearest  Indians  reached  their 
dead  kinsman,  they  stopped  a  short  time  to 
wait  for  others  to  come  up.  This  delay  gave 
Colter  time  to  reach  the  river.  He  plunged 
in,  swam  down-stream  and  dived  under  a  mass 
of  driftwood  lodged  against  the  head  of  an 
island. 

When  his  pursuers  reached  the  river, 
Colter  had  disappeared.  They  searched  the 
fringes  of  woods,  the  brush  and  tall  grass 
on  the  banks,  and  the  willows  on  the  island. 
They  scanned  the  prairie  up  and  down  the 


JOHN  COLTER'S  ADVENTURE  153 

river,  but  the  white  man  was  gone,  as  if  a 
spirit  had  carried  him  away. 

Many  times  they  walked  over  the  drift- 
wood, where  Colter  could  see  and  hear  them. 
For  hours  he  stood  there  as  if  hidden  in  a 
big  beaver  house.  It  was  impossible  for  them 
to  see  him,  but  his  heart  thumped  fast,  when 
the  thought  came  to  him  that  they  would  set 
the  raft  on  fire,  if  they  once  suspected  where 
he  was.  But  the  thought  never  occurred  to 
them,  and  at  dark  they  returned  to  camp  a 
tired,  crestfallen  lot  of  Indians,  outrun  and 
outwitted  by  a  hated  white  trapper. 

How  they  explained  that  five  hundred 
armed  Indians  had  been  unable  to  catch  and 
kill  one  naked,  unarmed  white  man,  has  never 
become  known. 

Colter  had  saved  his  life,  but  he  was  in  a 
fearful  plight;  for  at  that  time,  the  nearest 
white  men  lived  at  Manual  Lisa's  fort  at  the 
junction  of  the  Bighorn  River  and  the  Yel- 
lowstone about  two  hundred  miles  away  as 
the  crow  flies. 

Few  men  indeed  could  have  saved  them- 
selves under  these  conditions,  but  Colter,  a 


154     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

typical  American  soldier  and  hunter,  did  not 
despair. 

He  had  been  one  of  the  privates  of  the 
great  exploration  of  Lewis  and  Clark.  When 
these  explorers  on  their  return  trip  reached 
the  Mandan  village  near  the  present  town  of 
Bismarck,  N^rth  Dakota,  he  was  discharged 
and  returned  to  the  mountains  to  trap. 

On  this  occasion  he  traveled  alone  from 
the  forks  of  the  Missouri  to  the  Bighorn, 
passed  through  the  present  Yellowstone  Park 
and  was  the  first  white  man  who  saw  Yellow- 
stone Lake,  the  geysersr  and  other  wonders 
of  the  Yellowstone. 

He  had  a  natural  eye  for  the  lay  of  land 
and  rivers,  and  his  years  of  experience  had 
given  him  a  knowledge  of  the  country  on  a 
large  scale.  He  possessed  wonderful  en- 
durance and  undaunted  courage. 

This  was  the  man,  who  came  out  of  hiding 
at  dark,  when  the  Blackfeet  had  given  up 
finding  him. 

He  was  hungry,  shivering  with  cold,  sore- 
footed  and  absolutely  naked  and  unarmed; 
but  he  traveled  all  night.  For  he  knew  that 
at  daybreak  his  enemies  would  again  return 


JOHN  COLTER'S  ADVENTURE  155 

to  search  for  him,  and  if  they  once  caught 
sight  of  him,  there  would  be  no  hope  of  sav- 
ing his  life. 

In  the  morning  he  came  upon  a  buffalo, 
freshly  killed  by  wolves.  He  threw  stones 
and  clods  at  the  snarling  beasts  and  kept 
them  away  from  their  kill  long  enough  to 
tear  off  some  meat  for  himself.  On  this 
meat  and  on  the  bulbs  of  the  prairie  turnip, 
he  existed  till  he  reached  Manuel  Lisa's  fort 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Bighorn,  which  he  did  in 
seven  days. 

The  escape  of  John  Colter,  as  far  as  the 
writer  knows,  has  no  parallel  in  American 
history,  unless  it  be  the  exploit  of  the  Sioux 
chief,  Rain-In-The-Face,  a  trained  Indian 
runner,  who  escaped  from  jail  in  Montana, 
and  fled  in  mid-winter  to  Irs  kinsmen  in  Can- 
ada. He  traveled  three  hundred  miles  in 
three  days  and  nights,  without  sleep  and  with- 
out food.  But  that  is  a  story,  which  cannot 
be  told  in  detail  at  this  time. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE   DREADED   BLACKFEET 

IT  was  stories  of  the  kind  told  in  the  fore- 
going chapter  that  Sam  could  not  banish 
from  his  mind,  while  the  lads  followed  the 
trail  which  was  now  slowly  approaching  the 
mountains. 

' '  Sam,  whom  are  you  dreaming  of  T '  asked 
Al  one  day,  when  he  and  Sam  had  ridden 
in  silence  mile  after  mile.  " What's  all  the 
sadness  about!" 

"I'm  not  dreaming  of  anybody  and  I  am 
not  sad."  Sam  spoke  quietly.  "I  am  doing 
some  hard  thinking  and  I  am  a  little  wor- 
ried." 

"Tell  me,"  requested  Al,  "what  is  the 
thinking  and  worry  all  about." 

"It  is  mostly  about  those  two  small 
brothers.  We  are  now  in  the  country  which 
the  Shawnee  chief  thought  most  dangerous. 
I  shall  be  surprised  if  we  do  not  meet  with 
some  Crows,  before  we  reach  Fort  Laramie, 

156 


THE  DREADED  BLACKFEET   157 

and  between  the  fort  and  South  Pass,  if  we 
have  some  bad  luck,  the  Blackfeet  may  catch 
us." 

Al  thought  they  might  as  well  stop  worry- 
ing about  Indians.  They  had  not  seen  one 
for  days,  and  as  for  the  Blackfeet,  Al  did 
not  believe  that  they  would  ever  see  the  hair 
of  one.  Their  country  was  several  hundred 
miles  north  of  the  trail. 

"Yes,  I  know  all  that,"  Sam  admitted, 
"but  you  also  know  that  all  these  tribes  are 
great  roamers,  and  you  may  at  any  time  find 
a  war  party  or  a  horse-stealing  party  two 
hundred  miles  away  from  their  own  country." 

In  about  a  week  after  the  boys  had  left 
their  hunting  camp  they  reached  Fort  Lara- 
mie  without  having  seen  any  Indians.  The 
country  had  been  dry  and  barren  and  they 
had  lived  entirely  on  the  food  they  carried 
with  them. 

Here  they  learned  what  had  become  of 
Spotted  Wolf  and  his  party,  and  how  com- 
pletely Sam  had  succeeded  with  his  ruse  for 
throwing  them  off  his  trail. 

"Gosh,"  exclaimed  Ben  to  Dick  while  the 
two  lads  roamed  through  every  building  and 


158     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

corner  of  the  fort,  "Sam  surely  fooled  them 
right.  I  always  thought  a  white  man 
couldn't  fool  an  Indian,  when  it  comes  to 
trails  and  such  things,  but  Sam  did  it." 

From  this  time  on  Sam  became  an  infal- 
lible hero  to  Ben  and  Dick.  They  did  with- 
out murmur  everything  they  were  asked  to 
do,  and  they  felt  absolutely  sure  that  Sam 
would  take  them  through. 

It  did  not  worry  them  that  the  emigrants 
had  passed  Fort  Laramie  a  month  ago.  On 
the  contrary,  they  were  glad  that  even  the 
last  stragglers  of  the  big  train  were  gone.  It 
would  be  no  fun  to  travel  with  strangers. 
Sam  and  Al  and  the  dog  were  just  the  right 
company.  With  Sam  as  their  boss,  they  had 
no  end  of  fun.  At  almost  every  camp,  they 
found  a  place  to  swim  and  to  fish,  and  Sam 
and  Al  seldom  grew  tired  of  their  numerous 
questions.  The  only  things  forbidden  were 
random  shooting  at  animals  or  birds  and 
•riding  ahead  out  of  sight. 

They  were  not  worried,  when  Sam  and  Al 
figured  out  that  they  had  averaged  only  a 
little  over  twenty  miles  a  day  since  they 
left  Fort  Leavenworth.  They  didn't  care 


THE  DREADED  BLACKFEET   159 

when  they  reached  Oregon,  for  they  had 
plenty  of  warm  clothing  and  blankets,  or  if 
winter  should  set  in,  before  they  reached  the 
Willamette.  In  fact  they  hoped  that  they 
wrould  have  to  make  at  least  one  more  hunting 
camp,  because  hunting  and  making  pemmi- 
can  had  been  even  more  fun  than  following 
the  trail. 

Sam  and  Al  were  not  so  well  pleased  and 
did  not  feel  so  secure  as  their  two  younger 
brothers.  They  had  covered  less  than  one 
third  of  the  journey,  only  about  six  hundred 
and  seventy  miles,  and  the  next  four  hundred 
miles  to  Fort  Bridger  in  the  Green  River 
valley  on  the  other  side  of  the  divide  would 
be  the  most  dangerous  part  of  the  way. 

They  would  have  to  hunt  for  meat  from 
time  to  time,  for  provisions  seemed  to  be  just 
melting  away.  Sam  knew  that  a  hunting- 
party  often  attracted  Indian  visitors,  some  of 
whom  might  be  in  a  troublesome  mood,  for 
he  had  seen  enough  of  life  on  the  plains  to 
know  that  white  men  often  committed  brutal 
outrages  on  the  Indians,  for  which  the 
Indians  in  turn  took  revenge  on  the  next 
party  of  white  men  that  fell  into  their  hands. 


160     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

They  met  a  camp  of  about  ten  Crows,  who 
were  indeed  not  as  ugly  as  the  party  of  the 
late  Spotted  Wolf,  but  it  took  some  strong 
talk  on  the  part  of  Sam  and  a  resolute  dis- 
play of  guns  and  pistols  to  make  them  keep 
their  distance. 

They  wanted  to  trade  horses ;  they  needed 
guns  and  ammunition,  because  they  thought 
the  Blaokfeet  were  coming  through  their 
country;  and  they  wanted  to  see  what  the 
white  men  had  in  their  packs. 

None  of  these  requests  Sam  could  grant; 
but  he  gave  them  some  tobacco  and  some 
beads  for  their  squaws. 

The  presence  of  a  small  party  of  boys  on 
the  trail  was  evidently  puzzling  to  them,  for 
they  pointed  east  and  asked  in  signs:  "More 
white  men?"  apparently  thinking  that  these 
four  boys  were  traveling  ahead  of  a  larger 
train. 

While  Sam  was  talking  with  the  leader  of 
the  Crows,  Ben  had  a  hard  time  to  hold 
Prince  from  rushing  in  on  the  talk.  He 
showed  plainly  that  he  remembered  Spotted 
Wolf  and  that  he  thought  all  Indians  were 
bad. 


THE  DBEADED  BLACKFEET  161 

That  evening  the  boys  did  not  make  camp ; 
they  did  not  even  stop  for  supper.  They 
let  the  horses  drink,  and  filled  their  canteens 
at  a  water-hole  and  then  they  rode  on  eat- 
ing their  pemmican  on  horseback. 

"I  do  not  trust  that  bunch,"  said  Sam. 
"We  have  too  many  things  which  they  want; 
the  farther  we  get  away  from  them  the 
better." 

Both  horses  and  boys  grew  tired,  but 
Sam  would  not  stop.  When  Dick  fell  asleep, 
Sam  tied  him  to  the  saddle,  but  no  camp 
was  made  till  midnight;  and  then  the  horses 
were  picketed  as  close  to  camp  as  possible. 
Moreover,  the  camp  was  made  not  adjoining 
the  trail,  but  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away,  where 
it  was  not  in  sight  from  the  trail. 

If  the  party  had  been  larger,  Sam  would 
have  set  regular  night  watches,  but  as  it  was, 
the  dog,  Prince,  was  alone  left  on  guard  duty, 
and  the  boys  felt  that  he  would  allow  no 
Indians  to  come  close  to  the  camp. 

The  night  passed  quietly,  but  in  the  days 
following,  they  met  other  parties,  with  whom 
they  had  a  similar  experience.  The  Indians 
wanted  to  buy  guns  and  ammunition.  Bad 


162      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Indians  were  coming  through  their  country, 
and  they  needed  more  guns  and  good  horses. 

When  the  boys  reached  the  well-known 
landmark,  called  Independence  Eock,  on  the 
Sweetwater  River,  they  all  felt  tired  out  and 
decided  to  rest  for  a  few  days. 

Carved  on  Independence  Rock  they  found 
the  names  of  many  famous  explorers  and 
trappers.  And  quite  a  number  of  emigrants, 
who  had  passed  the  rock  about  a  month  ago, 
had  added  their  names  to  the  list. 

This  landmark  is  a  bare  rock  standing 
alone  as  if  dropped  on  the  plain,  where  it 
may  be  seen  to  this  day.  It  lies  close  to  the 
left  bank  of  the  Sweetwater.  The  trail  left 
the  North  Platte  about  thirty  miles  east  of 
the  rock,  and  followed  the  Sweetwater.  The 
river  is  said  to  have  received  its  name  from 
the  fact  that  in  the  early  days  a  mule  lost  a 
pack  of  sugar  in  its  waters. 

After  the  boys  had  recovered  from  their 
fatigue,  Al  and  Dick  rode  ahead  a  few  miles 
to  get  a  deer  or  an  elk,  because  they  all 
craved  for  fresh  meat. 

"I  wish  we  had  some  good  bows  and  ar- 
rows," remarked  Sam,  as  the  two  hunters 


THE  DKEADED  BLACKFEET  163 

left  camp.  "I  am  always  afraid  that  shoot- 
ing will  bring  us  troublesome  visitors." 

In  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  Al  killed 
a  black-tail  deer,  and  both  hunters  were  busy 
dressing  their  game,  when  they  were  sud- 
denly surrounded  by  Indians,  who  motioned 
them  to  come  along. 

The  boys  had  carelessly  leaned  their  guns 
against  a  neighboring  tree,  and  could  do  noth- 
ing else  but  obey  their  captors. 

The  Indians  took  them  westward  several 
miles,  where  they  joined  a  large  party  of 
several  hundred  Indians,  who  were  traveling 
north. 

Al  had  a  chance  to  say  to  Dick,  "Brother, 
I  think  we  are  in  for  real  trouble.  I  believe 
they  are  Blackfeet,  though  it  beats  me  where 
they  all  come  from.  Whatever  happens 
don't  show  any  fear,  it  would  only  make 
matters  worse.  Perhaps  we  can  slip  away 
after  dark." 

There  was  a  great  noise  amongst  the 
Indians,  when  the  captives  were  brought  in. 
The  chief  and  a  number  of  old  warriors  held 
a  council,  evidently  discussing  the  question 
what  should  be  done  with  the  white  boys. 


164      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

While  the  chief  and  the  old  men  were  talk- 
ing, Al  took  a  piece  of  curved  steel  out  of  his 
pocket,  and  began  to  lift  his  knife  with  it. 
This  interested  and  puzzled  his  captors  very 
much,  for  none  of  them  had  ever  seen  a 
magnet. 

Al  had  to  try  the  strange  medicine  on  their 
own  knives,  but  they  would  not  touch  the 
magnet  themselves.  When  by  touching, 
smelling  and  tasting  their  knives,  after  the 
white  boy's  medicine  had  lifted  them,  they 
could  discover  no  change  in  them,  they  were 
still  more  mystified,  and  took  the  boys  to  the 
chief  for  whom  Al  had  to  display  his  medicine 
again. 

If  they  had  intended  to  kill  their  captives, 
they  changed  their  minds,  evidently  thinking 
it  too  dangerous  to  harm  men  who  possessed 
such  strange  medicine.  Their  horses  and 
guns  and  pistols  had  been  taken  from  the  boys 
when  they  were  captured,  and  the  Indians 
now  also  took  their  knives,  but  no  Indian 
would  touch  the  magnet. 

When  evening  came  the  Indians  pitched 
about  a  hundred  tepees  some  five  miles  north 


THEY  WERK  SUDDENLY  SURROUNDED  BY  INDIANS. — Paye  163. 


THE  DREADED  BLACKFEET   165 

of  the  trail,  at  a  place  where  they  had  ap- 
parently camped  before. 

But  Al  and  Dick  were  not  allowed  to  enter 
this  camp.  Their  captors  took  them  several 
miles  farther  north  and  camped  with  them 
on  a  little  stream  in  the  open.  Before  the 
boys  were  allowed  to  lie  down  they  had  to  take 
off  their  shoes,  and  their  hands  and  feet  were 
tied  with  rawhide  thongs. 


CHAPTER  XX 

AFTER   THE   LOST   HUNTERS 

WHEN  evening  drew  near  and  the  two  hunt- 
ers had  not  returned  to  camp,  Sam  did  not 
at  first  suspect  that  anything  serious  had  hap- 
pened to  them.  The  two  brothers  had  re- 
peatedly been  away  from  camp  together.  Al 
had  quickly  learned  to  be  cautious  in  the 
Indian  country  and  had  ridden  horseback 
and  used  firearms  since  he  had  been  a  small 
boy.  No  Indians  and  buffaloes  had  been  seen 
for  several  days,  and  Sam  knew  only  too 
well  by  how  many  incidents  a  hunter  may 
be  led  far  from  camp  or  may  be  compelled  to 
return  late  by  many  other  causes,  which 
even  the  best  plainsman  and  hunter  cannot 
foresee. 

But  when  the  sun  set  and  the  two  brothers 
in  camp  had  finished  their  supper  and 
picketed  their  horses  for  the  night,  Sam 
began  to  share  the  anxiety  of  his  smaller 
brother. 

166 


AFTER  THE  LOST  HUNTERS   167 

He  scanned  the  western  skyline  with  his 
glass,  but  could  not  discover  a  sign  of  life 
set  off  above  the  horizon.  He  listened  for 
the  tramp  of  horses  but  caught  no  sounds  ex- 
cept the  yaps  and  howls  of  coyotes  and 
wolves. 

"Let  us  ride  out  to  meet  them,"  he  finally 
decided.  "Perhaps  they  are  bringing  more 
meat  than  they  can  carry." 

At  every  turn  and  on  every  rise  of  the  trail, 
he  and  Ben  stopped  and  strained  their  senses 
to  catch  a  sign  of  the  returning  hunters,  but 
they  caught  no  sign  or  sound  of  any  human 
beings. 

"Perhaps  they  went  too  far  from  the  trail 
and  got  lost,"  suggested  Ben. 

"No,  Al  couldn't  get  lost  here,  if  he  tried 
to,"  objected  Sam.  "On  a  clear  night  like 
this,  any  child  can  tell  by  the  stars  whether 
he  is  going  north  or  south.  The  trail  runs 
east  and  west  and  is  so  plain  that  a  blind  man 
could  not  miss  it.  They  are  not  lost,  some- 
thing else  detains  them." 

Ben  thought  they  ought  to  fire  a  gun,  as 
they  had  done  in  the  sand-hills,  but  Sam 
would  not  hear  of  that. 


168     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

''If  they  are  helpless  somewhere  they  will 
fire  a  gun,  but  if  they  are  held  by  Indians, 
our  signal  guns  would  only  bring  the  Indians 
upon  us,  too.  No,  we  must  not  do  any  shoot- 
ing. "We  will  go  on  a  mile  or  two  farther." 

On  the  plains  and  in  the  woods,  the  senses 
of  men  become  keen.  The  ears  are  not  dulled 
by  the  clang  and  clatter  of  street  traffic,  and 
the  delicate  nerves  of  scent  are  not  deadened 
by  fumes  of  furnaces  and  the  gross  odors  of 
the  street. 

"Don't  you  smell  smoke?"  asked  Ben  as 
he  sniffed  the  breeze  that  was  gently  blowing 
from  the  northwest. 

Sam  was  soon  satisfied  that  Ben  was  right. 
In  fact  Sam  smelled  more  than  just  smoke. 
There  came  across  the  prairie,  the  peculiar 
odor  of  an  Indian  camp. 

"Let  us  turn  toward  it,"  he  almost  whis- 
pered. "If  it  is  a  camp,  it  is  not  far  away." 
After  going  about  two  miles,  they  halted 
among  some  tall  sage-brush,  where  they  could 
look  into  the  valley  of  a  small  stream. 

And  there  below  them  was  spread  out  a 
large  Indian  camp.  It  seemed  as  if  it  might 
contain  a  hundred  lodges,  but  there  was 


AFTER  THE  LOST  HUNTERS   169 

something  unreal,  almost  uncanny  about  it. 
The  ordinary  Indian  camp  shows  many  camp 
fires  and  sends  forth  a  bedlam  of  noises  until 
late  at  night.  But  in  this  camp  the  fires 
had  all  been  put  out.  The  horses  were  graz- 
ing in  a  close  bunch,  directly  north  of  the 
camp;  and  Sam  at  once  concluded  that  a 
guard  was  keeping  them  bunched.  There 
was  no  beating  of  drums,  no  singing,  no  bark- 
ing of  dogs;  the  camp  was  dark  and  silent. 

Sam  knew  that  Indians  encamped  in 
their  own  country,  safe  from  enemies,  never 
make  a  silent  camp.  Some  one  is  always 
making  a  feast,  the  drums  beat  for  a  dance, 
perhaps  for  a  scalp-dance,  or  some  squaws 
mourn  their  slain  relatives  with  loud  moans 
and  wails. 

"Stay  here  a  little  while  with  the  horses," 
whispered  Sam,  "while  I  crawl  up  a  little 
closer." 

"No,  don't,  Sam,"  pleaded  Ben.  "I'm 
afraid  to  stay  back  alone.  Let  me  go  with 
you.  We  can  take  the  horses  into  the  hollow 
behind  us  and  tie  them  to  the  brush." 

Like  wolves  of  the  night,  the  two  brothers 
began  to  circle  around  the  whole  camp. 


170     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

"Don't  you  let  out  a  yell,  if  you  step  on  a 
cactus!"  Sam  warned  the  smaller  boy. 

Now  a  dog  barked,  but  the  short  yelp  that 
followed  told  Sam  that  some  one  had  kicked 
the  restless  cur  into  silence. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  camp  the  scouts 
crept  up  close  enough  to  make  sure  that  the 
ponies  were  indeed  held  together  by  a 
mounted  horse  guard  of  several  men,  who 
silently  rode  around  the  grazing  herd  like 
so  many  specters  wrapped  in  their  blankets, 
for  the  starlit  night  had  turned  cool. 

Once  the  two  scouts  lay  down  flat  under 
the  sage-brush,  while  a  mounted  specter  rode 
slowly  past  in  the  open  within  thirty  yards 
of  them  and  Ben  thought  the  Indian  would 
hear  the  beat  of  his  heart. 

"Why  didn't  you  keep  farther  out?" 
whispered  Ben,  when  the  danger  was  past. 
"They'll — they'll  catch  us,  if  you  go  so 
close. ' ' 

"Keep  still,"  replied  Sam;  "I'll  tell  you 
later.  Stick  close  to  me  now.  We  must  get 
back  to  our  horses." 

Soon  they  were  safe  out  of  hearing  of  the 


AFTER  THE  LOST  HUNTERS  171 

camp,  but  Ben  was  still  trembling  with  excite- 
ment. 

' l  Sam,  why  did  you  go  so  close  ? "  he  asked 
again.  "That  horse  guard  pretty  nearly 
caught  us." 

Sam  could  not  help  chuckling  a  little  bit. 
"If  we  had  not  gone  so  close,  I'm  afraid  he 
would  have  caught  us.  I  did  not  want  his 
pony  to  get  the  wind  of  us,  that's  the  reason, 
I  hid  between  him  and  the  herd.  It  was  a 
bit  of  a  close  shave,  and  I'm  glad  we  are 
out  of  it." 

"I'll  never, — never  let  you  crawl  around, 
— a, — an  Indian  camp  alone,"  Ben  vowed. 
"If  they  catch  you, — they, — they  might  as 
well  catch  me,  too." 

They  reached  their  horses  and  rode  back 
to  the  trail  as  quietly  as  possible.  Both 
hoped  that  they  might  find  Dick  and  Al  in 
camp,  but  Sam  had  now  fallen  into  a  serious 
mood. 

Tbfc  meaning  of  the  dark  and  silent  camp 
became  clear  to  him.  These  Indians  were 
not  Crows,  in  their  own  country.  They  were 
enemies  of  the  Crows,  who  were  headed 


172      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

north.  They  were  not  simply  a  small  quick- 
traveling  war  party.  They  had  women  and 
children  and  old  men  with  them,  otherwise 
they  would  not  need  so  many  horses.  They 
had  made  a  silent  camp  so  as  not  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  Crows.  But  who  were 
they?  Where  did  they  come  from?  Where 
were  they  going?  Could  they  be  Shoshones, 
or  Snakes,  come  to  hunt  buffalo  this  side  of 
the  divide? 

He  tried  hard  to  recaH  every  fact  he  had 
learned  while  with  the  traders,  about  the 
country  of  the  various  tribes  and  their  rela- 
tions. He  ran  over  in  his  mind  the  big  pow- 
erful tribes,  the  Sioux,  the  Comanches,  the 
Cheyennes,  the  Shoshones,  the  Blackfeet,  the 
Chippewas. 

But  no,  the  Chippewas  did  not  belong  here 
at  all.  They  were  Woods  Indians  of  Minne- 
sota and  Wisconsin. 

And  then  he  tried  to  recall  the  host  of  small 
and  split  and  scattered  tribes.  Some  of 
them  had  been  pushed  west  all  the  way  from 
the  Atlantic  coast,  others  had  been  reduced 
to  mere  remnants  by  war  or  smallpox.  He 
wished  now  that  he  had  tried  to  learn  all 


AFTER  THE  LOST  HUNTERS  173 

about  all  the  tribes  instead  of  just  listening 
to  the  stories  of  the  hunters  and  trappers. 

He  knew  the  Delawares  and  Shawnees,  the 
Otos  and  Missouris,  the  Kaws  and  Pawnees ; 
but  on  the  western  tribes,  the  Nez  Perees,  the 
Flatheads,  the  Cayuses  and  Kootenais,  he 
felt  somewhat  mixed. 

What  was  that  he  had  heard  about  the 
Arapahoes?  Yes,  that  was  it.  They  had 
split  a  long  time  ago  and  some  of  them  had 
become  Blackfeet.  At  least  they  were  liv- 
ing with  the  Blackfeet,  and  ever  so  often 
they  went  south  on  a  great  visiting  trip  to 
their  kinsmen,  who  lived  at  the  headwaters 
of  the  Arkansas. 

These  Arapaho  Blackfeet  were  the  most 
dreaded  enemies  of  all  white  trappers. 

And  suddenly  a  thought  flashed  through 
his  mind.  That  big  silent  camp  he  and  Ben 
had  found,  was  a  camp  of  Arapaho  Black- 
feet,  called  Gros  Ventres,  "Big  Bellies,"  by 
the  trappers.  They  were  returning  from 
one  of  their  visits,  and  they  had  made  a  dark 
and  silent  camp  because  they  were  now 
traveling  through  the  country  of  the  Crows, 
their  permanent  enemies. 


174     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

What  if  Al  and  Dick  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  these  Gros  Ventres  ?  But  no,  it  was 
not  at  all  likely,  his  two  cousins  were  un- 
doubtedly safe  in  camp  now. 

"Let  us  hurry,  Ben,"  he  finally  broke  the 
silence.  "Al  and  Dick  must  be  home  by  this 
time.  Let's  hurry!  They  will  get  worried 
and  start  to  look  for  us." 

Prince  was  beside  himself  with  joy,  when 
the  two  boys  returned.  He  whined  and 
danced,  rolled  on  the  ground,  bit  at  tufts  of 
grass,  jumped  up  to  lick  Ben 's  face  and  even 
gave  vent  to  several  loud  barks,  something 
which  he  very  seldom  did. 

The  man  who  does  not  believe  in  dnselfish 
friendship  has  never  known  a  dog.  If  he  is 
once  your  friend,  he  does  not  care  what 
clothes  you  wear,  what  office  you  hold,  or  what 
kind  of  a  house  you  live  in.  If  he  has  you  he 
is  as  happy  in  a  bark  shack  as  in  a  marble 
palace.  Your  voice  is  music  to  him  and  your 
kind  words  are  his  joy. 

During  the  night,  only  the  younger  boy 
really  slept,  for  nature  has  decreed  that  child- 
hood shall  be  free  from  sorrow  while  the  stars 
are  shining  overhead. 


AFTER  THE  LOST  HUNTERS   175 

Sam,  on  the  other  hand,  was  able  to  sleep 
only  in  snatches.  Again  and  again  he  awoke, 
although  weary  in  mind  and  body,  and 
listened  for  the  tramp  of  horses  and  the 
sound  of  human  voices;  and  at  daybreak, 
he  and  Ben  and  the  dog  started  on  the  trail 
of  the  lost  hunters. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE   BUCKSKIN    MESSAGE 

THE  two  lads  did  not  look  back  to  see  the 
morning  sunlight  flood  the  plain  and  cast  long 
shadows  of  rocks  and  hills.  Their  hearts 
were  too  full  of  anxiety  to  feel  the  joy  of 
morning. 

Now  that  Sam's  mind  was  not  dulled  by 
fatigue,  their  calamity  appeared  even  greater 
than  during  the  wakeful  hours  of  night. 

What  if  they  should  find  both  of  their  com- 
panions dead?  He  had  heard  of  many  cases, 
where  the  Blackfeet  had  killed  white  men 
who  had  fallen  into  their  hands.  Most  of 
these  cases  had  happened  some  years  ago, 
but  the  Blackfeet  were  still  much  the  same 
savage  warriors  that  they  were  in  the  days 
of  John  Colter. 

So  the  two  worried  lads  hurried  their 
animals  along  as  fast  as  possible,  whilfe  all 
the  time  they  were  searching  the  prairie  and 
the  hills  for  a  sign  of  the  lost  hunters,  and 

176 


THE  BUCKSKIN  MESSAGE      177 

were  urging  their  faithful  dog  to  "Hunt  for 
lost!"  a  command  the  two  small  boys  had 
taught  him  in  the  woods  at  Leavenworth. 

Prince  had  been  as  restless  during  the 
night  as  Sam,  and  he  showed  clearly  by  his 
active  hunt  for  a  scented  trail  that  he  under- 
stood that  his  masters  were  searching  for 
their  lost  companions. 

In  a  bit  of  broken  country  a  little  way 
south  of  the  trail  and  some  three  miles  west 
of  Independence  Rock,  the  dog  gave  tongue. 
Upon  quickly  riding  to  the  spot,  the  boys 
found  that  the  dog  had  discovered  two  kinds 
of  scent  at  the  fresh  remains  of  an  elk.  At 
some  of  the  tracks  he  growled  and  bristled 
while  at  others  he  danced  and  whined,  look- 
ing at  the  boys  in  a  quizzical  way  as  if  he 
would  ask,  "Shall  I  follow  these!  This  is 
their  trail." 

"Go  on!  go  on!"  Sam  urged  him,  and  at 
the  same  time  he  picked  up  something  from 
the  ground. 

"Thank  God!"  he  exclaimed.  "They 
weren't  killed.  Look!  Here's  Dick's  hunt- 
ing-knife ! ' ' 

For  half  a  mile  the  dog  ran  along  swiftly, 


178     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

his  nose  on  the  ground.  Then  he  stopped  and 
began  to  circle  around  much  puzzled,  as  if 
the  scented  trail  had  suddenly  ended. 
Larger  and  larger  became  the  circles  he  made 
to  pick  up  again  the  lost  scent,  but  at  last 
he  came  back,  his  tongue  lolling  out  of  his 
mouth,  and  he  looked  at  his  masters,  as  if 
he  would  say:  "I  don't  understand  it,  but 
the  trail  stops  right  here.  If  there  were 
trees  here,  I  could  find  the  one  they're  hiding 
in.  Can't  you  tell  where  they  have  gone?" 

"Good  dog,  good  dog!"  Sam  patted  his 
head.  "Now  we'll  do  a  little  trailing  our- 
selves. See  here,  Ben,  look  sharp  for  horse 
tracks.  Isn't  this  the  mark  of  Al's  horse? 
Sure,  here  is  the  nicked  hoof  of  the  right  fore- 
foot." 

A  careful  search  showed  that  two  horses 
and  several  ponies  had  passed  over  the  hard 
ground  going  northwest  in  the  direction  of 
the  Indian  camp. 

"Brother,  I  have  it,"  called  Sam.  "Our 
hunters  were  surprised  when  they  were  cut- 
ting up  the  elk  meat.  Some  Indians,  prob- 
ably the  flank  scouts  of  the  big  camp,  heard 
them  shoot,  crawled  up  on  them,  before  the 


THE  BUCKSKIN  MESSAGE      179 

boys  could  grab  their  guns  and  order  them  to 
stop. 

"Al  kept  his  head,  when  he  saw  that  the 
game  was  up.  If  he  had  started  a  fight,  both 
he  and  Dick  would  have  been  killed,  for  one 
man  and  a  small  boy  can't  fight  half  a  dozen 
reds,  if  they  have  closed  up  on  them. 

"From  the  elk's  carcass  to  this  place,  Al 
and  Dick  were  made  to  walk,  and  Prince  fol- 
lowed their  tracks.  Then  the  Indians  grew 
afraid  that  more  white  men  were  near,  and 
they  made  the  boys  mount  their  horses  again 
to  get  away  quicker.  Of  course  their  guns 
and  pistols  they  had  taken  away,  and  in  this 
way  they  took  the  boys  to  the  big  camp. 

"I  wish  to  God  we  had  listened  to  the  old 
Shawnee's  warning  and  taken  along  a  bow 
and  arrows,  so  we  could  have  hunted  without 
making  a  lot  of  noise!" 

However,  it  was  not  Sam's  nature  to  waste 
time  on  regrets.  A  boy  of  those  days  grow- 
ing up  in  the  new  country  west  of  the 
Alleghanies  learned  to  deal  with  many  prob- 
lems of  a  frontier  country. 

"What  next?  What  now?"  were  the 
thoughts  on  Sam's  mind. 


180      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

He  and  Ben  must  do  everything  possible 
to  learn  more  about  their  lost  companions. 
In  order  to  do  so,  they  must  travel  light, 
much  lighter  than  they  had  gone  thus  far. 
So  they  rode  back  to  the  elk's  carcass,  where 
they  had  tied  up  the  pack-horses  and  extra 
horses.  During  the  work  before  them,  they 
could  not  be  encumbered  with  anything. 

"We'll  cache  the  goods,"  decided  Sam, 
"and  hobble  the  horses  right  here.  This 
place  is  as  good  as  any  we  would  be  likely 
to  find.  If  we  ever  come  back  this  way,  we 
may  recover  our  horses  and  goods,  if  not, 
some  Indians  will  make  a  great  find." 

In  a  very  short  time,  the  two  brothers  were 
once  more  on  the  trail  of  the  Blackfeet. 
They  carried  nothing  but  their  arms  and 
ammunition,  a  few  blankets  and  a  little  dried 
meat,  cracked  hominy,  sugar  and  tea.  The 
brindled  Dane  came  with  them,  but  they  had 
taken  no  extra  saddle-horses,  fearing  that 
such  might  hinder  more  than  help. 

They  were  soon  in  sight  of  the  Indian 
camping-ground  of  the  previous  night;  but 
the  Indians  were  gone,  which  showed  that 
they  were  in  a  hurry  to  get  out  of  the  country. 


THE  BUCKSKIN  MESSAGE      181 

Neither  the  dog  nor  the  boys  could  find 
anything  else  but  the  usual  relics  of  an  Indian 
camp,  so  they  followed  the  trail  cautiously 
northward  a  short  distance.  This  was  easy 
enough,  for  the  travois  and  ponies  of  several 
hundred  Indians  made  a  trail  plain  enough. 
In  fact  Sam  was  not  afraid  of  losing  the  trail, 
he  was  afraid  of  being  caught  by  some  of  the 
scouts,  whom  the  Blackfeet  had  undoubtedly 
left  in  the  rear,  to  give  warning  of  any  pur- 
suing war  parties  of  their  enemies,  the 
Crows. 

Not  until  the  afternoon  did  the  two  lads 
proceed  on  the  trail  with  the  greatest  care, 
keeping  under  cover  as  much  as  possible,  al- 
though they  felt  reasonably  sure  that  by 
this  time  even  the  rear  scouts  were  far  enough 
ahead  that  they  were  not  likely  to  discover 
the  two  horsemen  following. 

Sam  was  too  well  versed  in  the  ways  of 
the  Indians  to  attempt  at  the  present  time  a 
rescue  of  the  lost  hunters.  He  did  not  even 
wish  to  fall  in  with  any  of  the  Blackfeet 
scouts. 

"We  don't  want  them  to  capture  us,"  he 
explained  to  his  puzzled  young  brother. 


182     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

"And  we  can  not  afford  a  brash  with  them. 
If  one  of  them  should  be  wounded  or  killed 
by  us,  they  would  take  revenge  on  our  friends. 
That  is  the  Indian  way.  If  a  white  man  kills 
a  Blackfoot,  the  Blackfeet  will  kill  the  next 
white  man,  who  falls  into  their  hands.  It 
would  never  occur  to  them  to  ask  who  was  to 
blame  or  who  started  the  trouble.  Even  if 
a  wise  old  chief  saw  the  foolishness  of  the 
ancient  custom,  he  would  not  be  able  to  con- 
trol his  young  warriors.  Whatever  we  do, 
we  must,  at  present,  not  get  into  a  fight  with 
the  Blackfeet." 

"Then  why  are  we  following  them?"  asked 
Ben. 

"To  see  what  we  can  find  out.  Their  next 
camp  may  tell  us  something.  Or  perhaps  Al 
may  outwit  them  in  some  manner  and  get 
away  with  Dick.  Al  can  be  depended  upon 
to  make  the  most  of  any  chance. ' ' 

However,  the  next  camping-place  told  noth- 
ing to  the  eyes  of  the  boys  and  very  little 
to  the  nose  of  the  dog,  who  showed  his  usual 
anger  at  the  many  Indian  smells.  But  on 
the  site  of  one  tepee  he  became  much  excited. 
He  sniffed  the  ground  intently  and  ran 


THE  BUCKSKIN  MESSAGE      183 

around  trying  to  pick  up  a  trail,  but  the 
scent  ended  right  there. 

Both  lads  gave  a  shout  of  joy.  "They're 
still  alive!"  they  cried.  "Prince  has  found 
the  place  where  they  camped  last  night." 

For  several  days  they  followed  the  trail, 
keeping  half  a  day  behind  the  Indians.  In 
this  way  they  learned  that  the  Blackfeet  were 
moving  rapidly  northward  along  the  foot- 
hills in  the  valley  of  the  Big  Horn  with  the 
evident  intention  of  reaching  the  region  of 
the  Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Marias,  which  was  Blackfeet 
country. 

Every  camp  they  searched  carefully  for 
signs  or  a  possible  message,  but  they  discov- 
ered nothing  more  definite  until  they  reached 
the  fifth  camp.  At  this  place  the  dog  dis- 
covered a  small  piece  of  buckskin,  which  at 
first  sight  looked  like  a  rag  accidentally  left 
among  pieces  of  wood  on  the  camping-ground. 
But  a  close  examination  showed  it  to  carry 
a  most  important  message.  Something  was 
crudely  printed  on  it  with  charcoal: 

"Caught  by  Blackfeet.    Winter  Jeff  Fork. 


184     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

Shall    watch    our    chance.    Do    not    follow 
us.    AL." 

While  this  note  confirmed  the  fears  of  Sam, 
it  left  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  two  lost 
boys  were  still  alive;  and  it  gave  the  all- 
important  information  as  to  the  place  where 
these  Blackfeet  intended  to  spend  the  winter. 

This  question  had  been  in  Sam's  mind 
every  day  they  had  been  following  the  trail. 
He  knew  that  the  Plains  Indians  were  great 
roamers.  Many  times  he  asked  himself: 
" Where  and  how  far  are  they  going?" 

If  they  continued  to  go  north  into  Canada 
they  would  be  five  hundred  miles  from  the 
Oregon  Trail,  and  it  would  be  next  to  impos- 
sible to  bring  help  to  his  friends. 

The  words  "Jeff  Fork"  plainly  meant 
* '  Jefferson  Fork  of  the  Missouri, ' '  which  was 
only  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  straight 
north  of  Fort  Hall.  The  question  of  bring- 
ing any  help  to  Al  and  Dick  was  still  a  truly 
desperate  one,  but  at  this  distance  with  Fort 
Hall  as  a  base,  he  might  at  least  make  some 
attempt. 

He  could  not  hope  to  secure  any  more  in- 
formation at  present,  for  it  would  be  im- 


THE  BUCKSKIN  MESSAGE      185 

possible  for  the  captives  to  leave  a  fuller 
message  written  on  paper  and  placed  on  a 
stick,  the  kind  of  message  Ben  had  expected 
to  find.  Sam  felt  sure  that  Al  had  no  pencil 
or  paper  on  his  person,  when  he  left  camp  at 
Independence  Eock.  Moreover,  the  Black- 
feet  undoubtedly  watched  their  captives  so 
closely  that  it  would  have  been  impossible 
openly  to  leave  a  message  in  the  camp  or  on 
the  trail.  But  Al  had  at  last  outwitted  them 
by  tearing  a  piece  of  buckskin  from  his  shirt 
and  printing  the  message  on  it  in  the  dark. 
At  least,  this  was  the  conclusion  Sam  and 
Ben  reached  after  they  had  again  and  again 
examined  the  message.  The  letters  were  un- 
equal in  size,  the  lines  were  crooked,  and  the 
letters  overlapped  as  in  a  monogram.  The 


186      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

words  especially  gave  them  much  trouble  to 
decipher. 

In  the  afternoon  of  this  day,  Sam  dis- 
covered through  his  glass  two  Indian  scouts 
about  two  miles  to  the  west  also  following 
the  Blackfeet  trail;  and  in  the  evening  the 
prairie  to  the  north  was  on  fire  for  miles, 
the  fire  running  south  with  a  north  wind. 

Sam  concluded  that  the  scouts  he  had  seen 
were  Crows.  The  Blackfeet,  he  believed, 
had  discovered  them  and  had  set  fire  to  the 
grass  to  prevent  any  large  war  party  of 
Crows  following  them. 

Under  these  conditions  Sam  deemed  it  wise 
to  return  and,  if  possible,  to  recover  their 
cache  and  horses ;  and  in  order  to  avoid  both 
the  fire  and  the  Crow  scouts,  he  made  a  detour 
of  several  miles  to  the  east. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

A  EOBBED    CACHE 

SAM  was  unusually  silent  on  the  return  to 
the  cache. 

Would  he  ever  see  again  the  two  lads  for 
whose  safety  he  had  made  himself  respon- 
sible? He  should  never  have  allowed  them 
to  go  out  hunting  in  a  country  where  he  knew 
they  might  fall  in  with  roaming  Blackfeet. 
He  should  have  gone  himself. 

Was  he  not  acting  the  coward  now,  in  not 
going  amongst  the  Blackfeet  and  sharing  the 
fate  of  Al  and  Dick,  whatever  that  might  be? 
He  had  a  hard  struggle  with  himself,  for  it 
was  just  what  he  wanted  to  do.  What  pos- 
sible help  could  he  expect  at  Fort  Bridger 
or  Fort  Hall?  He  could  not  ask  strangers 
to  expose  themselves  to  almost  certain  death 
or  even  torture  amongst  these  savages  just 
because  he  had  mismanaged  his  party. 

After  all,  it  was  a  foolhardy  thing  for  four 
lads  to  face  the  dangers  of  traveling  through 

187 


188     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

the  country  of  half  a  dozen  Indian  tribes 
whose  distrust  of  the  white  race  was  being 
fanned  into  hatred  and  fear  lest  this  danger- 
ous race  should  kill  all  the  buffalo  and  starve 
every  Indian  on  the  plains. 

The  old  Shawnee  had  given  him  true  warn- 
ing. He  should  have  waited  till  next  spring 
to  join  the  big  emigrant  train  to  Oregon. 
What  would  his  parents  think  of  his  foolish- 
ness? And  APs  and  Dick's  parents  would 
curse  him  for  the  loss  of  their  sons.  Unless 
he  could  find  some  way  to  rescue  his  friends 
from  the  Blackfeet,  he  could  never  show  his 
face  in  Oregon.  He  might  as  well  live  with 
the  Indians  like  many  white  men,  who  had 
given  up  the  thought  of  ever  returning  to 
their  own  people. 

For  several  days  Sam  tortured  himself 
with  these  thoughts.  That  Al,  who  was  old 
enough  to  think  and  whom  he  had  cautioned 
many  times  against  the  carelessness  of  in- 
experienced travelers,  had  in  any  way  been 
seriously  at  fault  never  occurred  to  him. 

It  was  only  after  he  had  almost  exhausted 
himself  with  reproaches  that  youth  and  a 
naturally  buoyant  temperament  asserted 


A  ROBBED  CACHE  189 

themselves.  His  sleep  became  again  deep 
and  unbroken,  and  he  became  more  alert  and 
watchful  than  ever. 

To  his  younger  brother  he  became  again 
cheering  and  talkative  and  was  careful  not 
to  overtax  the  lad's  strength.  Every  even- 
ing the  two  had  a  meal  of  pemmican  or  fresh 
meat  secured  on  the  way  and  made  cheerful 
by  a  liberal  potion  of  sweet  hot  tea;  for 
Sam  knew  that  it  is  only  the  cheerful  man 
who  can  endure  hardships  and  face  danger 
undaunted  and  find  a  way  out.  This  he 
meant  to  do. 

But  no  sooner  was  the  meat  cooked  or  the 
tea  made,  than  the  small  fire  was  put  out, 
and  as  soon  as  darkness  had  fallen  on  the 
mountains  and  the  plains  the  two  lone  travel- 
ers again  mounted  their  horses,  and  later 
spread  their  blankets  in  some  secluded  spot, 
a  mile  or  two  from  the  place,  where  a  thin 
wreath  of  smoke  might  have  betrayed  their 
presence  to  the  keen  eyes  of  some  roving  In- 
dian hunters  or  war  party. 

When  the  two  arrived  at  their  cache  late 
one  evening,  the  place  looked  as  if  a  prairie 
whirlwind  had  struck  it.  Every  pack  had 


190      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

been  torn  open.  The  bolt  of  red  calico  was 
trailed  over  an  acre  of  ground,  one  of  the 
sugar  sacks  was  torn  to  pieces,  and  of  the 
supply  of  bacon,  biscuits  and  dried  meat  and 
pemmican  not  a  mouthful  was  left,  except 
one  pack  hid  in  a  crevice  in  the  rocks. 

For  a  moment  Sam  stood  speechless. 
Then  he  said  something  in  Shawnee  ac- 
companied by  some  quick  vigorous  motions 
in  the  sign  language,  and  he  ended  by  laugh- 
ing out  loud  and  exclaiming: 

"Well,  if  an  old  grizzly  bear  didn't  have  a 
family  picnic  on  our  grub!  Old  Satan  him- 
self couldn't  have  made  the  place  look  worse! 

"Go,  Ben,  and  get  some  sagebrush  and 
grease-wood  for  our  fire.  Gone  is  most  of 
the  bacon  and  jerked  buffalo!  We'll  have 
some  broiled  antelope  steak  for  supper." 

"Sam,  what  did  you  say  in  Indian?"  asked 
Ben. 

"Oh,  I  just  sent  that  grizzly  a  friendly 
greeting,"  Sam  replied,  laughing,  "and 
thanked  him  for  not  eating  the  calico  and 
the  tobacco,  so  we  have  something  left  to  give 
to  the  Indians. 

"If  he  hasn't  gone  and  killed  every  one  of 


A  BOBBED  CACHE  191 

our  horses,  we  ought  to  give  him  a  medal  for 
good  behavior." 

When  the  next  day  they  searched  for  the 
hobbled  horses,  it  looked  for  a  while  as  if 
the  grizzly  had  indeed  forfeited  all  claims  to 
a  medal.  Near  a  clump  of  tall  sage-brush  in 
a  dry  run  within  half  a  mile  of  the  cache  lay 
the  bones  of  one  of  the  horses.  They  identi- 
fied the  animal  as  one  of  their  own  by  the 
hobble  rope  which  was  still  securely  tied  to 
one  of  the  forefeet. 

"I  was  afraid  of  it,"  Sam  remarked  down- 
heartedly.  "I  fear  the  grizzlies  got  them  all. 
A  free  horse  can  take  care  of  himself  any- 
where, but  with  a  hobble  on,  he  is  badly 
handicapped.  It's  hard  luck,  Ben.  I  guess 
we  shall  have  to  foot  it  most  of  the  way  to 
Fort  Hall.  Our  two  horses  are  nearly  worn 
out  with  hard  travel  and  scant  fare. 
Traveling  all  day  and  being  staked  down  in 
the  sage-brush  at  night  has  made  a  hard  life 
for  the  poor  beasts." 

In  his  expectation  of  finding  the  other  five 
horses  dead  somewhere  near  the  cache,  the 
lads  were  pleasantly  disappointed.  They 
were  gone.  The  boys  climbed  a  rock,  and 


192     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

with  a  glass  searched  the  valley  of  the  Sweet- 
water  both  east  and  west. 

The  plain  of  this  river  both  east  and  west 
of  Independence  Rock  was  a  rich  game 
country,  and  the  boys  soon  discovered 
antelope,  elk,  and  buffalo,  but  no  horses. 

"I  have  no  doubt,"  Sam  spoke  gloomily, 
"they  are  lying  dead  in  the  sage-brush  some- 
where. This  is  a  hard  country  for  a  horse 
that  can  not  make  free  use  of  his  legs  and 
hoofs. ' ' 

"Couldn't  we  have  let  them  run  free?" 
asked  Ben. 

* '  No,  sonny,  not  in  this  country.  We  might 
have  done  so  on  an  island  in  the  Platte,  but 
on  the  plain  here,  they  would  have  traveled 
a  hundred  miles  by  themselves  or  joined  a 
band  of  wild  horses.  No,  if  we  had  let  them 
go  unhobbled,  we  should  never  have  seen 
one  of  them  again. 

"But  even  now,  the  question  is:  if  they 
are  not  dead,  where  are  they?" 

Few  city  boys  pay  close  attention  to  wind 
and  weather,  but  Sam  and  Ben  like  all  good 
plainsmen  and  woodsmen  had  learned  to  take 
close  note  of  earth  and  sky. 


A  ROBBED  CACHE  193 

They  remembered  that  the  wind  had  been 
mostly  west  and  northwest  for  the  past  week. 
The  weather  had  been  quite  warm  and  they 
reasoned  that  the  horses,  if  alive,  had  most 
likely  traveled  up-stream  against  the  wind. 
The  season  had  been  rather  dry  and  most 
of  the  small  tributaries  of  the  Sweetwater 
were  dry.  It  was  therefore  not  likely  that 
they  had  strayed  far  from  the  river. 

Acting  on  these  points,  the  lads  made  a 
careful  search  up-stream,  one  of  them  rid- 
ing most  of  the  time  on  the  north  side  and 
the  other  on  the  south  side  of  the  river. 

And  the  longer  they  searched,  the  more 
Ben's  courage  and  spirits  fell. 

"Sam  might  as  well  have  told  me  he  lost 
a  penny  on  the  Sweetwater1  last  year  and 
asked  me  now  to  hunt  for  it.  There  aren't 
any  horses  in  this  country.  I'm  sure  the 
grizzly  bear  and  the  wolves  got  ours.  It's 
no  use  looking  for  them."  Such  were  the 
thoughts  of  Ben  as  he  rounded  point  after 
point  without  seeing  horses  or  fresh  sign  of 
horses. 

When  the  two  brothers  met  at  noon  Ben 
told  Sam  that  he  thought  it  was  no  use  look- 


194      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

ing  for  the  horses  any  longer.  He  felt  sure 
they  were  all  dead. 

But  Sam  smiled  in  a  friendly  way  at  the 
discouragement  of  his  young  brother. 

"You  let  the  blues  catch  you,  brother,  while 
you  were  traveling  alone.  This  afternoon 
you  come  with  me.  We  can  ride  up  on  the 
south  side  and  return  on  the  north  side. 
Now,  I  will  tell  you  something  which  you 
failed  to  notice. 

"If  all  our  horses  had  been  killed  near  the 
cache,  we  should  have  seen  some  ravens  and 
crows  in  the  neighborhood.  And  I  can  tell 
you  a  little  more.  I  found  some  sign,  which 
was  not  more  than  three  or  four  days  old 
and  I  found  a  place,  where  two  horses  had 
been  lying  down.  There  was  no  sign  of  an 
Indian  camp  near  that  place,  and  the 
animals  were  not  wild  horses,  because  those 
generally  travel  in  bands  of  about  ten  or 
twenty  or  more.  I  think  those  signs  and 
beds  were  made  by  our  own  horses,  that  have 
slowly  traveled  against  the  wind,  just  as  we 
figured ;  and  I  think  we  had  better  put  in  the 
rest  of  the  day  looking  for  them." 

But  when  several  hours  had  again  passed 


A  BOBBED  CACHE  195 

without  the  lost  horses  being  found,  Ben  was 
once  more  ready  to  give  up  the  search. 

"Let  us  return  to  the  cache,"  he  urged, 
"and  take  what  we  want.  The  grizzlies  or 
the  Indians  got  our  horses,  or  they  broke 
their  hobbles  and  strayed  away.  We  have 
not  seen  a  sign  of  them  all  afternoon." 

"If  we  do  not  find  the  horses,  we  do  not 
need  to  return  to  the  cache,"  Sam  told  the 
impatient  boy.  "Our  present  mounts  are 
carrying  their  full  loads  now.  In  fact  I  can 
see  that  they  are  going  to  give  out,  unless 
we  let  them  rest  several  days.  They  are 
half-starved  and  are  getting  footsore. 

"Remember,  brother,  Fort  Hall  is  four 
hundred  miles  off,  and  we  shall  have  to  walk 
part  of  the  way,  unless  we  find  our  extra 
horses." 

And  again  the  two  lads  rode  westward  mile 
after  mile,  carefully  searching  every  spot, 
where  a  bunch  of  horses  might  graze.  Ben 
paid  but  little  attention  to  anything.  The 
barks  and  antics  of  the  prairie-dogs  did  not 
sem  funny  to  him,  and  the  big  wild  game  had 
no  interest  for  him.  He  was  tired  and  worn 
out,  as  tired  as  the  faithful  horse  that  car- 


196     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

ried  him.  When  riders  and  horses  stopped 
for  a  drink  at  a  cool  spring,  he  was  strongly 
tempted  to  ask  Sam  to  camp  for  the  night, 
but  he  knew  how  Sam  always  stuck  to  a  plan 
once  decided  on.  So  he  said  nothing  and 
followed  Sam's  lead,  but  he  could  not  help 
thinking  how  fine  it  would  be  if  he  could  just 
lie  down  under  the  willow  near  the  spring 
and  sleep  till  daylight,  and  then  sleep  some 
more  till  noon. 

The  sun  was  already  throwing  a  flood  of 
gold  over  the  autumn  grasses  and  flowers  and 
over  the  shining  band  of  the  river,  when  the 
riders  turned  a  projecting  cliff. 

When  the  plain  beyond  was  again  in  view, 
both  of  the  horses,  that  had  been  listless  and 
weary  all  day,  raised  their  heads  and  ut- 
tered a  loud,  glad  whinny. 

Three  horses,  only  a  hundred  yards  away 
returned  the  greeting  of  their  kind,  and  a 
fourth  arose  quickly  from  the  shade  of  a 
straggling  cottonwood. 

The  two  lads  gave  a  shout,  for  they  had 
found  four  -of  the  strayed  animals ;  and  King 
Saul  in  the  Good  Book  was  not  more  glad, 
when  he  found  the  lost  asses  of  his  father. 


A  BOBBED  CACHE  197 

At  a  spring  near  by,  the  lads  made  camp 
and  ate  a  frugal  supper,  while  six  horses 
were  cropping  the  rich  green  grass  on  a  little 
meadow  near  the  river. 

Before  the  stars  came  out,  two  weary  lads 
were  sound  asleep  in  their  blankets  under 
the  willows,  and  their  faithful  watch-dog  lay 
stretched  out  on  a  saddle-blanket. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

TO   FOET   HALL  AND   PIERRE 's   HOLE 

WHAT  became  of  the  sixth  horse,  the  boys 
never  learned.  He  was  a  restless  animal, 
and  Sam  thought  he  might  have  broken  his 
hobble  and  joined  a  band  of  wild  animals. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  when  in  the  morning  he 
was  not  found  near  the  other  horses,  the 
boys  decided  to  lose  no  time  searching  for 
him,  but  to  return  directly  to  their  cache. 

They  passed  only  one  night  at  that  place, 
starting  on  the  long  trail  for  Fort  Hall  next 
morning. 

Sam  and  Ben  each  rode  one  of  the  fresh 
horses,  while  the  two  others  carried  the  goods 
and  extra  equipment  which  the  bears  had  not 
destroyed.  Fortunately,  Sam  had  hidden  a 
small  cask  of  powder  under  some  rocks, 
where  it  had  not  been  disturbed.  The  two 
horses  that  had  carried  Sam  and  Ben  on  the 
trail  of  the  Blackfeet  followed  without  a  load. 

Game  was  still  abundant  along  the  Sweet- 

198 


TO  FORT  HALL  199 

water,  but  the  buffaloes  were  no  longer  as 
numerous  as  the  trappers  had  found  them 
ten  years  earlier.  The  prairie  was  every- 
where dotted  with  their  bleached  bones  and 
skulls,  showing  the  destruction  wrought  on 
the  great  herds  by  white  and  Indian  skin- 
hunters. 

When  the  travelers  came  within  sight  of 
the  mountains,  they  saw  that  the  higher  peaks 
and  ranges  were  already  white  with  large 
and  small  fields  of  snow.  The  Shining 
Mountains  thus  gave  warning  to  the  travel- 
ers of  the  near  approach  of  winter. 

For  their  food  the  boys  depended  now  en- 
tirely on  game,  and  Ben  was  afraid  that  like 
some  travelers  he  had  heard  of,  they  might 
have  to  eat  some  of  their  horses.  But  Sam 
laughed  at  the  fears  of  his  smaller  brother. 

"Any  two  fellows  with  good  guns  and 
plenty  of  ammunition,"  he  said,  "that  can 
not  kill  enough  game  in  this  country  should 
have  stayed  with  their  mothers.  It  might 
be  difficult  to  find  game  to  feed  twenty  or 
thirty  men,  but  two  of  us  should  have  no 
trouble,  if  we  use  our  heads  and  do  not  waste 
the  meat  we  secure." 


200     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

They  reached  the  low  divide  of  the  famous 
South  Pass  without  accident,  and  camped  at 
the  Pacific  Springs  a  week  after  they  had  left 
their  cache. 

On  the  grand  scenery  around  them  they 
bestowed  but  little  thought.  Nor  did  they 
allow  themselves  to  be  detained  by  the  dust 
storms  of  the  dry  and  barren  trail.  Their 
one  thought  was :  ' '  Travel,  travel, ' '  to  reach 
Fort  Hall  as  soon  as  possible,  so  that  they 
might  make  some  definite  plan  of  rescuing 
Al  and  Dick,  if  it  were  at  all  possible  to  de- 
vise such  a  plan. 

About  half-way  between  Independence 
Eock  and  Fort  Hall  one  of  the  famous 
mountaineers  of  those  days,  Jim  Bridger, 
had  established  a  trading-post  or  fort  in  the 
summer  of  1843. 

The  lads  stopped  several  days  at  Fort 
Bridger,  located  on  Black's  Fork,  a  tributary 
of  Green  River;  and  Sam  secured  much 
valuable  information  from  the  famous 
pioneer,  who  knew  the  mountains,  the  trails, 
the  rivers  and  the  Indians  for  hundreds  of 
miles  around  his  fort  far  better  than  most 
men  and  boys  know  their  own  township. 


TO  FORT  HALL  201 

Bridger  told  the  boys  that  a  party  of 
American  trappers  under  the  leadership  of 
one  Eufus  Stone  had  gone  north  into  the 
mountains  from  Fort  Hall  and  that  they  ex- 
pected to  winter  in  a  secluded  valley  or  park 
called  Pierre's  Hole,  a  name  by  which  it  is 
known  to  this  day. 

On  leaving  Fort  Bridger  the  lads  relaxed 
a  little  in  the  caution  with  which  they  had 
traveled  east  of  South  Pass;  for  they  were 
now  in  the  country  of  the  Shoshones  or  Snake 
Indians,  who  had  been  friendly  to  the  whites, 
ever  since  the  days  of  Lewis  and  Clark,  whose 
guide,  the  faithful  Sacajawea,  was  a  Shos- 
hone  woman. 

But  the  lads  did  not  forget  they  were 
traveling  in  a  country  to  which  the  arm  of 
the  law  did  not  reach,  and  where  even 
friendly  Indians  might  yield  to  the  tempta- 
tion of  stealing  a  white  man's  horse  and 
goods. 

A  day's  journey  west  of  Fort  Bridger  a 
band  of  some  thirty  Shoshones  discovered 
the  two  lads.  Sam  at  first  noticed  a  small 
cloud  of  dust  in  the  distance,  and  when  the 
Indians  had  approached  within  a  mile  of  the 


202     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

white  men,  they  fired  several  guns,  which 
gave  Ben  a  great  fright.  But  Sam,  being 
better  acquainted  with  Indian  ways,  knew 
that  this  was  meant  as  a  friendly  salute. 

"They  wouldn't  shoot  in  the  air,  if  they 
were  hostile,"  he  explained  to  Ben,  who 
thought  that  now  the  time  had  come  for  their 
last  fight. 

But  although  Sam  felt  convinced  of  the 
friendly  disposition  of  the  Shoshones,  he 
nevertheless  signaled  them  not  to  approach, 
and  the  younger  brother  was  again  surprised, 
when  the  whole  band  obeyed  the  signal. 

The  chief  of  the  band  now  dismounted,  laid 
his  gun  on  the  ground  and  came  forward 
alone.  Sam  also  dismounted  and  gave  his 
gun  and  horse  to  Ben,  saying: 

"Don't  be  scared,  brother,  but  look  out 
for  that  dog  of  yours." 

Prince,  indeed,  was  ready  to  welcome  the 
Shoshone  in  the  same  way  he  had  greeted 
the  Crow  on  the  Platte,  and  Ben  tied  him 
to  the  saddle  just  in  time  to  prevent  his  mak- 
ing a  vicious  rush  at  the  friendly  chief. 

The  Indian  told  Sam  that  their  camp  was 
about  ten  miles  up  the  Big  Muddy  river  and 


TO  FORT  HALL  203 

invited  the  lads  to  stay  with  them  over  night. 
He  wanted  to  know  where  Sam's  chief  was 
and  how  far  the  other  white  men  were  be- 
hind on  the  Big  Trail. 

At  first  the  Indians  would  not  believe  that 
Sam  and  Ben  had  no  chief  and  that  no  other 
white  men  were  following  them.  Several 
scouts  were  sent  east  to  look  for  other  white 
men,  but  they  soon  returned  and  satisfied 
their  chief  that  the  white  boys  had  told  the 
truth. 

Arrived  at  the  camp,  the  white  guests 
were  given  the  seat  of  honor  in  the  chief's 
tepee,  the  place  opposite  the  door  between 
the  fire  place  and  the  rear  wall.  A  squaw 
brought  them  a  meal  of  broiled  trout,  caught 
in  a  stream  near  by,  and  some  young  men 
placed  the  goods  of  the  boys  in  the  chief's 
tent  and  then  took  care  of  the  horses.  Prince 
had  to  be  tied  up  in  the  tepee,  for  he  showed 
a  strong  desire  to  kill  every  Indian  dog  that 
came  near  him. 

In  the  morning  Sam  made  a  present  of 
some  tobacco,  some  red  cloth  and  some  beads 
to  the  chief,  and  the  Indian  sent  three  men 
and  a  boy  with  his  white  friends  to  see  them 


204     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAKNING 

safely  to  Fort  Hall.  He  also  advised  them 
to  remain  at  Fort  Hall  over  winter  and  to  go 
on  a  buffalo  hunt  with  his  men,  who  were 
preparing  to  make  their  great  fall  hunt. 

Fort  Hall  was  a  Hudson  Bay  Company's 
post.  It  was  built  in  1834  by  an  American 
from  Boston,  John  Weyeth,  who  tried  to 
establish  himself  in  the  fur  trade  in  the 
mountains,  but  he  found  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  too  strong  and  was  compelled  to 
sell  his  fort  and  goods  and  furs  to  his  power- 
ful British  rival. 

In  1843,  the  year  of  our  story,  the  fort 
was  in  charge  of  James  Grant,  who  was  most 
courteous  and  friendly  to  the  lads,  furnish- 
ing them  with  everything  needed  at  a  reason- 
able cost. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Company  was  always 
hospitable  and  helpful  to  missionaries,  ex- 
plorers, and  travelers,  provided  they  did  not 
try  to  engage  in  the  fur  trade.  The  Company 
was  ever  watchful  against  rivals. 

The  lads  had  not  told  the  Indians  of  the 
misfortune  they  had  suffered,  but  they  did 
tell  the  whole  story  to  Mr.  Grant  and  asked 
for  his  advice. 


TO  FORT  HALL  205 

Mr.  Grant  set  at  rest  the  troubled  con- 
science of  Sam. 

"It  would  have  been  foolhardy,"  he  told 
the  boys,  "if  you  had  entered  the  Blackfeet 
camp.  It  would  have  made  all  four  of  you 
captives;  and  several  years  might  have 
passed,  before  your  people  would  have  been 
able  to  learn  what  had  become  of  you." 

The  report  about  Rufus  Stone  and  his 
party  of  some  twenty  free  trappers  was  con- 
firmed by  Mr.  Grant. 

The  free  trappers  of  those  days  were  men 
who  had  not  hired  out  to  trap  for  either  the 
American  Fur  Company  or  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company.  They  trapped  for  themselves 
and  depended  entirely  on  themselves  in  the 
protection  of  their  lives  and  property.  They 
sold  their  furs  at  any  of  the  western  trading- 
posts,  or  at  a  rendezvous  of  traders  and  trap- 
pers, or  took  them  directly  to  St.  Louis. 

They  generally  bought  enough  Indian 
goods,  and  supplies  in  St.  Louis  to  stay  about 
two  years  in  the  mountains.  Once  in  the 
beaver  country,  they  trapped  on  every  rich 
stream,  but  also  bartered  for  many  valuable 
furs  with  the  Indians. 


206      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

The  best  of  these  free  trappers,  men  like 
Kit  Carson,  James  Bridger,  William  T. 
Hamilton,  Bill  Williams,  and  others  less 
famous  were  brave  and  fearless  American 
pioneers,  men  of  fine  character  and  of  a 
kindly  disposition.  Whenever  possible,  they 
established  friendly  relations  with  the 
Indians,  amongst  whom  they  had  many  de- 
voted friends.  But  when  a  hostile  tribe  or 
band  -tried  to  rob  them  of  horses,  goods,  or 
furs,  they  fought  with  such  vigor  and  bravery 
that  their  name  became  a  terror  to  the  red 
robbers. 

However,  when  at  all  possible  they  avoided 
getting  into  fights  with  the  natives.  Trap- 
ping on  a  good  stream  was  a  very  profitable 
business,  but  fighting  was  very  unprofitable. 
After  a  fight,  although  they  had  benen  victori- 
ous, the  men  had  to  trap  with  gun  in  hand, 
so  to  speak;  for  they  never  knew,  when  the 
revengeful  Indians  would  return  to  ambush 
the  men  as  they  attended  their  traps  often 
miles  away  from  camp.  The  result  generally 
was  that  the  trappers  broke  camp  and  left 
that  part  of  the  country. 

Eufus  Stone  and  his  party  were  trapping 


TO  FORT  HALL  207 

somewhere  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Clear- 
water  and  Salmon  Rivers,  both  tributaries  of 
the  Snake.  They  intended  to  winter  in 
Pierre's  Hole,  one  of  the  hundreds  of  park- 
like  valleys  in  the  mountains.  When  they 
would  arrive  at  their  winter  encampment 
Grant  did  not  know.  It  might  be  any  time 
in  November  or  December;  and  they  might, 
of  course,  change  their  plan  and  not  come  to 
Pierre 's  Hole  at  all. 

Next  spring,  Mr.  Grant  thought  they  would 
again  spend  several  months  hunting  beaver, 
because  beaver  fur  is  best,  when  the  ice 
begins  to  melt  in  the  streams  and  beaver 
ponds,  and  in  midsummer  he  expected  to  see 
them  at  Fort  Hall. 

As  to  whether  they  would  help  or  could 
help  Sam  and  Ben  in  any  way,  Grant  was  un- 
able to  say.  He  felt  sure  they  were  men 
who  knew  the  mountains  and  every  mountain 
pass,  they  loved  adventure  and  they  were 
not  afraid  of  the  Blackf eet. 

"If  you  do  fall  in  with  them,"  Grant  con- 
cluded, "you  will  find  them  a  savage-looking 
crowd.  Brown  as  Indians,  long  beards,  long 
hair,  dressed  in  buckskin  shirts  and  trousers. 


208     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

And  armed ! "  he  exclaimed,  ' '  armed  like  the 
toughest  highwaymen  you  could  imagine! 
Rifles,  shotguns,  pistols,  knives,  and  hatchets ! 
And  by  George !  They  aren't  bluffers !  The 
old  boys  can  shoot!  I  seen  them  do  it!" 

That  evening,  when  Sam  and  Ben  retired 
to  one  of  the  small  bedrooms  of  the  fort, 
Sam's  mind  was  made  up. 

''Brother,"  he  said,  "they  are  our  men. 
If  we  can  only  find  them!" 

It  was  now  the  beginning  of  October,  and 
as  the  distance  from  Fort  Hall  was  only  about 
a  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  the  lads  had  plenty 
of  time  to  reach  Pierre's  Hole,  for  it  was 
not  at  all  likely  that  the  trappers  would  ar- 
rive at  their  winter  quarters  until  about  the 
middle  of  November. 

Mr.  Grant  advised  the  lads  to  engage  an 
Indian  as  guide,  fearing  that  the  lads  might 
become  lost  and  bewildered  in  the  mountains. 

But  Sam  and  Ben  felt  that  they  could  find 
the  place  without  a  guide.  Jim  Bridger  had 
not  only  given  them  a  clear  description  of  the 
route,  but  had  drawn  a  map  of  it,  indicating 
all  the  prominent  rivers,  mountains  and  other 
landmarks.  Sam  believed  that  Bridger 's 


TO  FORT  HALL  209 

map  was  a  better  guide  than  any  Indian  in 
the  country. 

Jim  Bridger  had  known  the  country  of 
Pierre's  Hole  and  the  Three  Forks  country 
north  of  it  for  more  than  ten  years.  He  was 
there  in  1832  at  the  mountain  rendezvous  of 
the  traders,  trappers,  and  Indians.  In  that 
year  he  traveled  about  in  the  mountains  for 
more  than  a  thousand  miles,  and  in  a  fight 
with  the  Blackf  eet,  he  received  in  his  shoulder 
an  arrow  head  which  he  carried  about  for 
three  years,  until  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman,  the 
missionary,  cut  it  out  on  Green  River  in  1836. 

So  the  lads  set  out  with  nothing  but 
Bridger 's  map  to  guide  them. 

They  traveled  up  the  Snake  River,  then 
turned  up  Henry  Fork,  and  finally  found 
themselves  in  a  beautiful  valley  near  the 
head  of  the  Teton  River,  which  is  a  tributary 
of  Henry  Fork.  This  valley  they  found  no 
difficulty  in  recognizing  as  Pierre's  Hole. 

It  ran  north  and  south  about  twenty-five 
miles,  and  was  from  three  to  five  miles  wide. 
A  fringe  of  poplars  and  willows,  golden  with 
their  autumn  colors,  followed  the  stream,  and 
many  fringes  of  trees  ran  towards  the 


210     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

mountains  along  small,  clear  creeks.  The 
grass  was  rich  and  abundant,  and  game  was 
plentiful.  The  valley  seemed  to  be  a  kind 
of  wild  paradise,  far  removed  from  all  the 
troubles  and  sorrows  of  the  human  world  of 
avarice  and  war. 

Above  the  open  valley  of  the  autumn-tinted 
trees  and  shrubs,  arose  the  great  somber 
forests  of  pines  and  other  evergreens ;  and  far 
to  the  east  the  bare,  snow-covered  peaks  of 
the  Three  Tetons,  the  most  prominent  land- 
marks of  all  the  Rocky  Mountains,  rose  into 
the  realm  of  the  clouds. 

There  was  no  doubt  that  the  lads  had  found 
the  trappers'  Paradise  which  Bridger  had 
described  to  them,  but  of  the  trappers  them- 
selves there  was  no  sight  or  sign  in  the 
whole  valley. 


CHAPTEE  XXIV 

THE   BBUSH  FORT 

ONE  of  the  hardest  games  for  white 
men  and  white  boys  to  play  is  the  game  of 
waiting.  We  have  ever  been  an  impatient 
race. 

In  this  respect  the  Indians  are  different, 
perhaps  they  are  our  superiors.  An  Indian 
knows  how  to  wait.  It  comes  natural  to  him 
and  it  is  not  a  trial  for  him.  Perhaps  he 
has  learned  the  game  during  many  genera- 
tions of  hunting  and  stalking  the  game  of  the 
forest  and  the  plains. 

During  many,  many  centuries, — no  one 
knows  how  many, — the  red  man  had  to  wrest 
his  food  and  clothing  and  shelter  from  the 
wilderness  like  a  man  stranded  on  a  wild, 
uninhabited  island. 

He  had  to  fight  stern,  wild  nature  bare- 
handed.   No  distant  markets  sent  him  food 
and  no  factories  made  clothing  and  arms, 
traps  and  ammunition  for  him. 
211 


212      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

The  weapons  he  used,  he  made  with  his 
own  hands.  He  had  no  steel  axes,  saws,  and 
planes  to  cut  and  shape  a  tree  into  lumber. 
Crude  stone  knives,  axes,  and  hammers  were 
all  the  tools  he  could  command.  What  in- 
finite patience  and  skill  it  must  have  taken  in 
those  days  to  make  bows  and  arrows  that 
would  capture  such  big  game  as  elk,  moose, 
and  buffalo! 

I  have  often  wondered  how  the  hard-work- 
ing Indian  women  in  those  days  cut  their 
lodge-poles  and  their  firewood,  and  how  the 
men  cut  the  birch-bark  for  their  canoes  and 
the  logs  for  their  dug-outs.  One  may  search 
the  old  journals  and  records  for  stories  of 
this  kind,  but  te  will  find  very  little. 

Most  of  the  white  men,  who  knew  the  In- 
dians in  those  early  days,  have  left  no  records. 
The  Jesuit  Fathers  had  perhaps  the  best  op- 
portunities of  seeing  the  Indian  as  he  lived 
before  white  traders  sold  him  guns,  axes, 
knives,  needles,  traps,  and  blankets,  iron  and 
copper  kettles  and  many  other  things,  which 
he  quickly  learned  to  use.  But  the  good 
fathers  were  much  more  interested  in  saving 
the  souls  of  the  Indians  and  in  driving  Satan 


THE  BRUSH  FORT  213 

and  his  cohorts  out  of  the  woods,  than  they 
were  in  learning  how  a  man  can  live  in  the 
wilderness,  when  he  has  only  his  bare  hands 
and  his  wits  to  depend  on. 

One  other  great  help  in  making  a  living 
the  Indians  did  not  possess.  They  had  no 
domestic  animals;  no  cattle,  hogs,  sheep, 
goats,  or  horses. 

When  Columbus  discovered  the  New  World 
there  was  not  a  horse  in  all  of  North  and 
South  America.  The  Indian  ponies  of  our 
plains  in  later  days  came  from  horses  which 
the  Spanish  explorers  and  settlers  abandoned 
or  lost  in  the  regions,  which  now  embrace  the 
Southwest  of  the  United  States.  As  these 
strange  animals  became  numerous  and  spread 
northward  the  Indians  of  the  plains  became 
horsemen,  quickly  recognizing  the  value  of 
the  new  beast,  both  for  war  and  for  hunting. 

To  this  day  the  Blackfoot  word  for  horse 
is  ponokameta,  a  compound  of  the  words  for 
elk  and  dog,  and  means  elk-dog.  The  Black- 
feet  did  not  have  horses  until  about  1700,  and 
they  had  to  coin  a  new  word  for  the  new 
animal. 

The  Indian  tribes  did  have  dogs  and  did 


214     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

know  the  use  of  fire,  but  it  must  have 
troubled  the  Indian  mothers  not  a  little  to 
feed  the  hungry  hunters  and  children  when 
the  ever-boiling  kettle  in  front  of  the  tepee 
was  unknown. 

It  must  have  been  in  those  days  when  the 
Indian  hunters  practiced  patience  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  became  a  part  of  his  nature. 
He  had  to  approach  close  to  his  game,  for 
an  arrow  would  not  kill  at  long  range,  and  a 
lost  arrow  meant  a  day's  work  to  replace  it. 

Fortunate  it  was  for  the  two  boys  in 
Pierre's  Hole  that  they  did  not  simply  have 
to  sit  down  and  wait  for  the  trappers  to 
arrive  from  somewhere  in  the  wild,  unknown 
mountains.  Whether  the  trappers  made  this 
place  their  winter  quarters  or  not,  the  boys 
knew  that  they  themselves  would  have  to 
camp  there,  at  least,  till  midwinter.  Unless 
— yes,  unless — as  Sam  sometimes  said  to  him- 
self, when  the  younger  boy  was  soundly 
asleep  in  his  blankets,  unless  a  war  party  of 
Blackfeet  captured  them  or  compelled  them 
to  flee. 

Pierre's  Hole  was  by  no  means  safe  from 
incursions  by  the  Blackfeet.  It  was  con- 


THE  BRUSH  FORT  215 

nected  by  a  pass  as  Bridger  had  told  Sam, 
with  the  famous  Jackson  Hole  country  east 
of  the  divide,  and  all  the  country  east  and 
north  of  the  divide  was  not  only  Blackfoot 
country,  but  country  almost  sure  to  be  full 
of  Blackfeet  during  the  winter,  because  it 
was  a  good  game  country  and  was  the  south- 
ern range  of  these  tribes. 

However,  the  two  lads  haci  no  time  to  worry 
about  themselves,  not  even  about  their  two 
friends,  who,  if  they  were  still  alive,  must 
be  somewhere  with  the  Blackfeet  across  the 
divide,  which  wound  its  way  among  the  wild, 
rugged  mountains  east  and  north  of  their 
camp  in  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Teton 
River. 

They  located  their  camp  where  a  small 
mountain  stream  joined  the  Teton.  On  the 
north  side  it  was  sheltered  by  a  thick  growth 
of  willows,  brush  and  young  poplars,  and  it 
was  so  well  concealed  amongst  trees  and  small 
growth  that  one  might  easily  pass  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  and  not  discover  it. 

"I  think  we  ought  to  build  some  sort  of  a 
fort,"  Sam  said,  when  the  site  was  definitely 
selected  and  their  tent  was  up.  "Of  course 


216      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

a  fort  with  only  two  men  in  it,  looks  a  good 
deal  like  a  joke,  but  if  we  have  not  some 
kind  of  protection  any  small  bunch  of  Reds 
can  crawl  up  on  us  and  fill  us  full  of  arrows, 
or  just  say,  'Come  along,  boys,  we've  got 
you!'" 

"Why,  Sam,"  Ben  asked  laughing,  "they 
wouldn't  talk  in  that  way,  would  they?" 

"No,  they  wouldn't,"  Sam  admitted. 
"But  that  is  what  their  talk  would  mean,  if 
they  did  talk. 

"But  they  might  just  knock  us  on  the  head 
without  saying  a  word;  or  they  might  grab 
us,  swing  their  beastly  tomahawks  over  our 
heads  and  yell  like  so  many  devils.  That's 
most  likely  what  they  would  do.  I  guess 
that's  the  way  they  caught  Al  and  Dick. 
But  what  ruse  Al  put  up  to  save  their  lives, 
I  should  like  to  know. 

' '  When  I  told  the  story  to  Jim  Bridger,  he 
said  he  was  surprised  the  boys  were  not 
killed  at  once,  but  he  believes  as  I  do  that  in 
some  way  Al  managed  to  save  his  own  and 
Dick's  scalp." 

The  boys  decided  that  they  would  build  a 
corral  for  their  horses,  so  as  to  make  it  im- 


THE  BRUSH  FORT  217 

possible  for  any  roving  Indians  to  steal  their 
horses  at  night. 

"Confound  all  the  Indians,"  Sam  re- 
marked. "It  makes  no  difference  how 
friendly  a  tribe  claims  to  be,  they  will  all 
steal  horses.  To  steal  horses  and  mules  and 
cattle,  they  seem  to  think  is  all  right,  if  they 
can  do  it  without  getting  caught.  Well,  we 
are  not  going  to  make  it  easy  for  them." 

Their  tent,  the  lads  also  pitched  in  the 
corral,  but  they  built  an  extra  fence  around 
it,  so  the  horses  could  not  come  up  to  the 
tent.  For  Prince,  they  built  a  little  house  of 
brush  and  sod  near  the  gate  inside  the  cor- 
ral, so  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  any  horse- 
thief  to  enter  the  enclosure  without  waking 
the  watchful  Dane. 

It  would  have  been  too  much  labor  for  the 
two  lads  to  build  a  solid  breastwork  of  earth 
and  heavy  logs  around  the  corral,  but  they 
did  surround  the  whole  corral  about  three 
feet  high  with  brush.  Arrows  and  even  bul- 
lets were  not  likely  to  go  through  this  brush, 
and  behind  it  they  would  be  able  to  put  up 
some  sort  of  defense,  and  it  would,  at  least, 
be  much  more  difficult  to  surprise  them. 


218      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WABNING 

When  the  corral  was  finished,  they  cut  up 
their  tents  and  made  a  tepee  out  of  the  cloth. 

"In  the  tepee,  we  can  keep  a  fire  burning, 
when  it  gets  cold,"  Sam  told  Ben,  "but  in 
the  tent  we  should  just  have  to  sit  and 
freeze." 

Every  day,  while  they  were  working,  Sam 
watched  the  bare  peaks  and  ridges  and  the 
pine-covered  slopes  of  the  mountains  with 
much  interest  and  anxiety. 

He  knew  if  the  weather  continued  warm  and 
fair  some  Blackfeet  hunters  and  warriors 
might  come  into  the  valley  of  the  Teton  to 
hunt  and  to  lift  some  scalps  if  they  had  a 
chance  to  surprise  any  Shoshones,  Nez 
Perces,  or  white  men. 

At  the  end  of  two  weeks,  a  snowstorm,  last- 
ing several  days,  raged  in  the  mountains. 
When  the  clouds  disappeared,  the  lads  saw 
that  all  the  slopes  above  timber  line,  were 
covered  with  a  sheet  of  white,  except  in  those 
places,  where  the  slope  was  so  steep  that  the 
snow  could  not  adhere.  They  had  no  means 
of  knowing  how  much  snow  had  fallen  in  the 
timber,  but  Sam  felt  sure  that  all  the  moun- 


THE  BRUSH  FORT  219 

tain  trails  and  passes  were  now  closed  with 
a  deep  layer  of  snow. 

At  last,  he  and  Ben  were  safe,  for  it  was 
not  likely  that  any  Blackf  eet  would  now  cross 
the  divide  before  spring. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

WILL   THEY   COMB? 

IF  the  lads  had  not  had  two  great  anxieties 
on  their  minds,  their  fancy  could  not  have 
pictured  a  place  nearer  to  a  boy's  dream  of 
happiness  than  this  Indian  paradise  in  the 
mountains. 

A  clear,  rapid  river,  marked  by  fringes  of 
fine  trees,  wound  its  way,  like  a  silvery  rib- 
bon through  the  brown  grass  of  the  valley. 
The  soft  grays  and  browns  of  the  open  slopes 
were  relieved  here  and  there  by  groves  of 
white-barked  poplars  as  well  as  by  dark 
patches  of  wild  plum,  cherry  and  other 
shrubs.  Again  and  again  Ben  felt  sure  that 
he  had  discovered  a  grove  of  the  white  canoe- 
birch  of  the  Northern  Indians,  but  a  close 
approach  always  showed  that  nature  had 
added  a  wash  of  soft  delicate  green  and  little 
patches  of  black  to  the  white  of  these  trees 

and  that  they  were  not  birch  but  poplar,  the 
220 


WILL  THEY  COME?  221 

most  widely  distributed  tree  of  North  Amer- 
ica. 

In  the  matter  of  streams  the  good  Lord 
had  certainly  done  much  better  by  this  moun- 
tain paradise  than  by  the  Garden  in  the  East. 
Instead  of  four  rivers,  there  were  many, 
dozens  of  them,  of  all  sizes,  running  and  leap- 
ing from  the  mountain  slopes  to  the  river, 
some  like  playful  children,  others  like  the  wild 
colts  of  the  prairie. 

There  were  no  lions  and  lambs  and  bare- 
footed children  such  as  Ben  had  seen  on  some 
old  pictures,  but  other  much  finer  animals, 
the  lads  saw  near  their  camp  every  day. 
Many  magnificent  elk  had  come  down  from 
the  mountains  in  company  of  black-tail  deer, 
and  several  small  herds  of  buffalo  could  be 
seen  daily.  But  small  herds  in  those  days 
meant  herds  that  embraced  two  or  three  hun- 
dred animals.  Herds  of  antelope  were  com- 
mon, and  on  high  rocky  slopes,  the  bighorned 
sheep  stood  like  sentinels  of  the  mountains. 
Of  course,  the  big  gray  wolves  and  the  coy- 
otes, the  ever-present  followers  of  the  buf- 
falo, filled  the  valley  with  their  wild  and  weird 
hunting-song. 


222      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Of  bears,  both  black  and  grizzly,  the  lads 
found  many  signs,  but  like  the  little  gophers 
and  prairie-dogs,  these  big  animals  had  re- 
tired into  their  dens  for  the  winter. 

But  the  red-spotted  and  rainbow-colored 
trout  had  not  gone  to  sleep.  They  filled 
every  hole  and  played  on  every  pebble  bed 
of  the  mountain  streams.  In  sheer  playful- 
ness they  bit  at  everything  that  was  put  on  a 
hook,  and  it  was  Ben's  constant  regret  that 
there  were  not  more  people  in  camp  to  fish 
for.  And  the  boys  ate  the  delicately  flavored 
fish  with  almost  as  much  relish  as  they  caught 
them.  There  was  not  even  a  suggestion  of 
mud  or  weed  in  the  solid  pink  meat.  Brook 
trout  broiled  and  brook  trout  fried  was  surely 
a  treat  to  hungry  boys,  who  had  for  months 
largely  subsisted  on  pemmican  and  jerked 
buffalo. 

" Never  in  my  life,"  vowed  Ben,  "shall  I 
touch  again  a  Missouri  River  catfish  or  an 
Illinois  sucker.  Gosh,  Sam,  the  fellows  out 
there  don't  know  what  a  real  fish  is. 

"Say,  Sam,"  he  asked  after  a  while,  "why 
doesn't  the  Bible  tell  something  about  the 
boys  of  Adam  and  Eve  fishing  in  the  rivers 


WILL  THEY  COME?  223 

in  Eden  ?  You  suppose  old  man  Adam  made 
them  dig  in  the  garden  and  pick  apples  all 
the  time?" 

"Ah,  wake  up,  brother,  and  spend  a  little 
more  time  reading  your  Bible,"  Sam  chided 
him  in  a  friendly  way.  "Adam  and  Eve 
didn't  have  any  boys,  while  they  lived  in 
Eden." 

"I  guess  that's  right,"  admitted  Ben. 
"Are  we  going  hunting  this  afternoon  or 
are  we  going  to  fish  some  more?" 

"I  guess,  we'll  do  neither,"  Sam  observed. 
"Look  at  the  mountains!  They  are  surely 
great  Shining  Mountains  now  to  the  east, 
but  to  the  north  a  snowstorm  is  blowing. 
Look,  you  can't  see  the  peaks  at  all,  and  the 
dark  pine  slopes  are  almost  buried  in  whirl- 
ing snow  clouds.  I  think  we  had  better  cut 
some  wood  this  afternoon.  Some  of  these 
days  a  snowstorm  may  come  down  into  our 
valley." 

It  was  a  surprise  to  both  lads  that  the 
horses  recovered  so  quickly  on  the  short,  dead 
grass  in  the  valley.  In  fact  Ben  had  been 
worried  about  the  horses,  when  he  saw  that 
Pierre 's  Hole  was  a  big  mountain  valley  cov- 


224     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

ered  with  dry  and  dead  grass.  He  had 
thought  that  the  place  was  much  smaller,  a 
real  hole  in  the  mountains,  where  for  some 
reason  the  grass  remained  green  all  winter. 

"Sam,  our  horses  will  surely  get  pretty 
thin  here,  if  they  don't  starve  on  this  dead 
grass,"  he  said. 

But  Sam  was  not  worried.  "If  the  trap- 
pers can  winter  here  with  their  horses,  and 
the  Indians  and  the  big  game,  I  guess  our 
horses  can  find  enough  to  eat.  This  grass 
is  not  like  so  much  dead  grass  in  the  East. 
It  is  like  fine  hay  cured  on  the  stem  and  left 
in  the  field." 

"Who  found  this  place  first?"  Ben  wanted 
to  know. 

"I  guess  the  wild  animals,  the  buffaloes 
and  the  elk  must  have  found  it  first.  Then 
the  Indians  discovered  it,  and  later  the  trap- 
pers found  it.  Some  trappers  were  here  and 
had  a  fight  with  the  Blackfeet  ten  years  ago, 
so  I  have  been  told." 

A  few  days  later  the  sky  became  cloudy  in 
the  afternoon.  In  the  evening  it  began  to 
snow,  and  when  the  boys  woke  up  in  the  morn- 
ing, the  whole  valley,  the  slopes  and  the  moun- 


WILL  THEY  COME?  225 

tain  forests  were  covered  with  a  fluffy 
glistening  layer  of  snow. 

Again  Ben  was  worried  about  the  horses. 
How  could  they  find  grass,  when  the  snow 
grew  deeper,  or  when  it  formed  a  crust? 
But  for  the  present  at  least  the  horses  did 
very  well.  They  pawed  away  the  snow  or 
pushed  it  aside  with  their  muzzles ;  moreover 
after  a  few  days  of  mild  weather,  the  snow 
disappeared  entirely  from  the  bottom  of  the 
valley. 

Thus  the  days  passed,  all  full  of  work  and 
exercise  in  the  keen  mountain  air.  Hunting 
and  curing  the  meat,  fishing,  and  exploring 
the  trout  streams,  looking  after  the  horses, 
repairing  saddles  and  clothing,  cutting  wood 
and  other  camp  work  left  no  idle  hour  in  the 
short  days. 

Both  lads  were  now  assured  that  neither 
they  nor  their  horses  would  starve  in  the 
Teton  Valley.  For  the  horses  the  boys  had 
put  up  a  brush  shed  which  sheltered  them 
from  wind  and  snow,  and  the  animals  looked 
as  well  as  if  they  were  getting  their  measure 
of  oats  every  day. 

Only  one  thing  worried  the  boys  now.    It 


226      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

was  the  last  week  in  November  and  there  was 
as  yet  no  sign  of  the  trappers  in  the  valley. 
What  if  they  had  changed  their  plans? 
Bridger  had  told  Sam  that  there  were  many 
warm  and  grassy  valleys  or  holes  in  the  moun- 
tains. In  fact  Bridger  had  said  there  were 
hundreds  of  holes,  or  parks  like  Pierre's 
Hole,  where  men  and  horses  could  winter; 
where  the  weather  never  was  very  cold  for 
any  length  of  time,  where  the  grass  remained 
good,  where  the  snow  never  lay  very  deep, 
and  where  game  was  plentiful.  What  could 
the  boys  do,  if  the  trappers  had  gone  to  some 
other  place,  and  did  not  come  to  Pierre's 
Hole? 

Thanksgiving  came  and  passed.  Al- 
though the  camp  table  was  set  with  fragrant 
trout  and  sage-hen,  and  Sam  had  baked  some 
fine  biscuits  with  elk  suet  for  shortening,  it 
was  a  sad  and  anxious  day  for  the  boys. 
They  could  not  help  thinking  and  talking 
much  of  their  friends  with  the  Blackfeet  and 
of  their  parents  anxiously  waiting  for  them 
in  Oregon.  The  mountain  ridges,  the  Three 
Tetons,  ani  the  forest  slopes  were  again  hid- 
den by  snow  clouds;  some  snow  also  fell  in 


WILL  THEY  COME?  227 

the  valley,  and  there  was  no  sign  of  the  trap- 
pers. 

Another  day  passed  and  another,  but  no 
trappers  came  to  Pierre's  Hole. 

The  last  of  November  arrived,  and  the 
campers  put  in  the  day  cutting  wood  and 
carrying  it  to  camp,  for  the  weather  looked 
threatening. 

After  dark  the  boys  sat  for  a  while  at  a 
camp-fire. 

"It  is  so  warm  and  cloudy,"  remarked 
Sam,  "I  look  for  a  big  snowfall  over  night." 

The  fire  was  burning  low,  and  both  lads 
looked  in  silence  at  the  dying  coals,  for  they 
had  by  this  time  told  each  other  many  times 
all  they  had  to  tell. 

Prince,  too,  seemed  to  have  fallen  into  list- 
less ways,  because  there  was  no  excitement 
for  him  in  camp  and  all  he  had  to  do  was  to 
eat  his  share  of  the  meat  and  crunch  many  a 
juicy  rib  of  elk  and  deer. 

He  had  been  stretched  as  close  to  the  fire 
as  he  could  stand  it.  Apparently  he  had  been 
asleep  for  an  hour.  It  was  remarkable  how 
much  time  that  dog  could  put  in  sleeping. 

But  now  he  raised  his  head,  pricked  up  his 


228      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

ears  and  uttered  a  growl.  Then  he  rose  up 
and  started  down  the  wind. 

Sam  called  him  back  but  the  next  moment 
there  came  loud  shouts  and  yells  from  half  a 
dozen  men. 

Ben  turned  pale. 

"Blackfeet!"  he  muttered,  and  rushed  into 
the  tepee  for  his  gun. 

"Come  back  here,  you  fool  youngster!" 
Sam  called  after  him.  " Those  aren't  In- 
dians. The  trappers  have  come.  Get  back 
here,  Prince  1" 


CHAPTEE  XXVI 

THE   TRAPPEBS 

THE  trappers  were  as  much  surprised  as 
Ben  and  Prince,  when  they  found  who  occu- 
pied that  camp  in  Pierre's  Hole. 

"Sniff  the  wind,  men,"  Eufus  Stone  had 
said  to  his  six  companions,  when  they  had  ap- 
proached within  two  miles  of  the  camp.  "I 
swan  one  of  the  gangs  has  beaten  us  to  it. 
Don't  you  smell  the  camp  fire?  Glad  I  am. 
We  are  all  wolfishly  hungry,  and  that  bunch 
can  broil  the  meat  and  brew  the  coffee,  while 
we  unpack  the  horses. ' ' 

When  they  came  close  enough  to  see  the 
camp-fire,  they  all  felt  sure  that  some  of  their 
friends  were  already  encamped  at  the  place 
of  rendezvous,  but  when  in  response  to  their 
shouts  they  were  greeted  by  a  wild-eyed  boy, 
a  tall,  lean  young  man,  and  a  fierce  growling 
dog  they  were  dumf  ounded.  Where  were  the 
men  and  the  horses! 

"Eight   glad   to    see   you,   lads!"    Stone 

229 


230      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

greeted  them,  when  he  had  convinced  himself 
that  they  were  neither  ghosts  nor  Indians. 
"When  did  you  join  the  bunch?  Where  do 
you  come  from?  Where  are  Larkin  and  his 
men  ? ' ' 

"Rufus,  don't  you  see  that  these  lads  don't 
know  what  you're  talking  about?"  broke  in 
one  of  the  men.  "You  think  you're  in 
Pierre 's  Hole ;  they  know  you  aren  't.  I  told 
you,  you  missed  the  trail  in  the  fog  day  be- 
fore yesterday.  Devil  knows  where  we  are ! ' ' 

"The  fog  on  your  brain,  Storkins!"  ex- 
claimed Stone.  "I'm  surprised  your  mother 
ever  raised  you.  You  couldn  't  find  your  way 
across  a  town  lot.  I  know  where  we  are. 
Haven't  we  seen  the  Three  Tetons  all  day? 
Now  sit  down,  and  let  these  boys  talk.  We  're 
at  our  rendezvous  in  Pierre's  Hole.  But 
where  are  Larkin  and  his  men,  and  who  are 
you  boys?  I  suppose  Larkin  has  gone  off 
to  do  some  more  trapping  in  the  mountains?" 

At  first  Stone  would  not  believe  that  no 
trappers  had  come  to  the  valley  before  he  and 
his  men  arrived;  and  when  Sam  related 
briefly  how  he  and  Ben  had  come  from  Fort 
Leavenworth  to  Fort  Bridger  and  Fort  Hall, 


THE  TRAPPERS  231 

and  then  from  Fort  Hall  to  this  secluded 
mountain  valley,  Rufus  Stone  shook  his  head 
and  looked  doubtingly  at  Sam. 

* l  It 's  a  strange  story,  young  man, ' '  he  com- 
mented. "If  it  isn't  true,  you  are  an  awfully 
good  liar,  one  of  the  best  I  have  ever  seen, 
and  there  are  some  good  ones  in  these  moun- 
tains. 

1 1  But  now,  if  you  and  the  kid  will  broil  some 
buffalo  ribs  over  your  fire  and  make  us  some 
coffee,  while  we  pile  up  the  baggage  and  at- 
tend to  the  horses,  maybe  we  shall  believe 
your  story." 

When  the  trappers  were  by  themselves,  sev- 
eral of  the  men  expressed  strong  doubt  as  to 
the  truth  of  Sam's  story. 

"Look  out  for  them,  Stone,"  the  cautious 
Storkins  advised  his  leader.  * '  I  don 't  believe 
a  word  of  it.  Came  all  the  way  from  Fort 
Leavenworth,  just  four  brats  of  them.  That 
Lanky  Sam  says  the  Blackfeet  got  the  other 
two  near  Independence  Rock. 

"It's  a  lie,  I  say.  They're  spies  of  the 
blasted  Company.  Old  Ramsay  Crooks  has 
had  a  bright  idea  to  spy  on  us  independent 
trappers.  He  and  the  other  blasted  Company 


232     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

sharks  think  we  won't  suspect  any  smooth- 
faced youngsters.  I  say,  look  out,  Stone,  they 
are  trying  to  find  out  if  we  discovered  any 
new  beaver  country,  or  if  they  can  do  us  up 
in  some  other  way. ' ' 

"The  blasted  Company,"  as  every  man  in 
the  mountains  knew  in  those  days  was  the 
American  Fur  Company,  which  practically 
controlled  the  fur  trade  in  the  United  States. 
Although  it  always  had  competitors  and  was 
never  a  legalized  monopoly  like  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company  in  British  North  America,  the 
independent  trappers  and  traders  were  never- 
theless always  ready  to  join  hands  against  the 
Company. 

In  reality  the  heads  of  the  company,  John 
Jacob  Astor  and  Ramsay  Crooks,  were  able 
and  patriotic  men,  who  conducted  a  big  busi- 
ness in  a  lawless  country. 

Astor 's  venture  of  founding  Astoria  as  told 
by  Washington  Irving  did  much  to  secure 
Oregon  for  the  United  States. 

The  story  of  four  boys  coming  alone  all  the 
way  from  Fort  Leavenworth  and  two  of  them 
being  captured  by  the  Blackfeet  sounded  to 
these  old  trappers  too  much  like  the  bear 


THE  TRAPPERS  233 

stories  and  Indian  stories  which  they  them- 
selves freely  invented  or,  at  least,  liberally 
elaborated  and  exaggerated  to  thrill  credulous 
tenderfeet. 

1 ' It's  a  big  lie,"  was  the  consensus  of  their 
opinion.  "  Somebody  wants  to  lure  us  into 
the  Blackf  oot  country.  Of  course,  if  we  knew 
that  the  yarn  was  true,  it  would  be  a  fine 
chance  to  even  up  some  old  scores." 

"Now,  think  a  bit,  men,"  Stone  tried  to 
argue  with  them.  "It  sounds  like  a  true 
story  to  me.  Both  of  the  lads  tell  it  the  same 
way,  and  with  some  details  that  would  be 
hard  to  invent.  The  trouble  is,  you  fellows 
are  all  such  liars  yourselves  that  you  think 
everybody  else  belongs  to  your  class." 

The  men  laughed  good-naturedly  at  this 
thrust,  but  they  were  not  convinced. 

Lanky  Sam  had  the  boy  primed  to  tell 
everything  just  so.  The  company  had  put 
over  many  smooth  tricks  on  the  independent 
trappers.  This  was  another  one.  It  had  all 
the  earmarks  of  Crooks  and  Astor  of  New 
York  and  of  Chouteau  and  McKenzie  of  the 
U.  M.  0.,  the  Upper  Missouri  Outfit. 

Sam  felt  that  Rufus  Stone,  in  spite  of  his 


234      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

jocular  remark,  really  believed  him,  but  that 
the  other  men  doubted  his  story. 

After  supper,  Sam  carefully  unwrapped  the 
message  Al  had  left  under  the  camp  rubbish. 
He  felt  sure  this  would  convince  them  of  the 
honesty  of  his  statements. 

They  all  looked  it  over  and  read  it  with 
great  care,  all  except  Storkins.  Storkins 
could  not  read  without  his  specs,  and  he  had 
lost  those,  while  he  was  being  chased  by  a 
grizzly  on  the  Clearwater  two  months  ago. 
Since  then  the  story  of  Storkins '  pawning  his 
specs  with  the  grizzly  had  been  told  so  many 
times  with  so  many  embellishments,  gar- 
nishments, and  variations  that  it  no  longer 
sounded  funny  to  Storkins. 

Sam  knew  how  the  independent  trappers 
felt  toward  the  American  Fur  Company,  but 
he  had  not  realized  how  far  their  suspicions 
would  go  in  any  matter  which  their  mind  had 
once  connected  with  the  company.  They 
were  not  convinced  by  Al's  very  convincing 
message.  It  all  looked  too  plausible,  just  like 
one  of  those  sharp  tricks  of  the  company. 

Had  Stone  never  heard  the  story  how  about 
ten  years  ago  Drips  and  Vanderburgh  of 


THE  TRAPPERS  235 

American  Fur  Company  kept  trailing  Fitz- 
patrick  and  Bridger  for  hundreds  of 
miles  over  this  very  country?  But  Bridger 
and  his  partner  were  too  wise  for  their  pur- 
suers and  led  them  straight  into  the  Black- 
foot  country  of  the  three  forks,  the  Madi- 
son, Jefferson,  and  Gallatin. 

The  chase  ended  by  Vanderburgh  and  one 
of  his  men  being  killed  by  Blackfeet.  But 
Bridger  and  his  party  also  got  into  a  fight 
with  the  Blackfeet,  in  which  Bridger  lost  his 
horse  and  was  struck  in  the  back  by  two  ar- 
rows. Bridger  and  his  men  escaped  with 
their  lives,  but  Bridger  carried  one  of  the  ar- 
rowheads in  his  back  for  three  years,  as  has 
been  told  before,  until  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman, 
the  missionary,  cut  it  out  at  the  rendezvous 
on  Green  River  in  the  summer  of  1836,  when 
he  was  on  his  way  to  Oregon. 

This  story  about  the  two  boys  being  cap- 
tured by  the  Blackfeet,  and  the  note  left  by 
them  might  be  true,  perhaps.  They  admitted 
that  it  sounded  pretty  straight,  but  the  Black- 
feet  were  a  pretty  bad  lot  of  Indians  to  deal 
with,  and  just  as  bad  now  as  ten  years  ago. 

Ben,  who  had  been  quietly  listening  to  all 


236     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

the  talk,  was  mad  all  through,  when  he  and 
Sam,  at  last,  retired  to  their  tepee. 

"Look  here,  Sam,"  he  protested,  "that's 
a  fine  bunch  of  old  scoundrels !  After  we  fix 
up  a  fine  supper  for  them  and  feed  them  on  a 
lot  of  our  bacon  just  as  a  treat,  they  pretty 
near  come  right  out  and  tell  us  we  are  liars. 
I  tell  you  what,  Sam,  if  I  had  been  a  man, 
there  would  have  been  a  fight.  Why  didn't 
you  pull  the  beard  of  some  of  the  nasty  old 
fellows  ? ' ' 


CHAPTER  XXVH 

ALDERS   AND   BRONC 

talk  like  that  of  those  men!"  Sam 
reproached  the  young  boy.  "They  may  not 
be  much  on  smooth  talk,  but  they  are  honest, 
straightforward  men,  and  you  had  better  be 
respectful  to  them,  as  becomes  a  youngster  of 
your  age. ' ' 

"I  didn't  mean  to  be  disrespectful  to 
them,"  Ben  apologized,  "but  it  made  me 
angry  to  have  them  think  we  are  liars  and 
spies." 

"Oh,  never  mind,"  Sam  objected  with  a 
laugh,  "just  let  that  pass.  When  I  think  it 
over,  I  see  that  our  story  sounds  a  little  bit 
strange,  just  a  little  bit  too  much  like  one  of 
their  own  yarns." 

Before  Ben  fell  asleep  he  had  been  con- 
vinced that  theirs  was  a  case  where  getting 
mad  would  do  no  good,  and  that  a  fight  with 
the  trappers  would  have  been  a  very  foolish 
and  a  very  useless  fight. 

237 


238     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

In  the  morning  Stone  came  to  Sam  and 
Ben's  tepee  to  explain  and  excuse  the  behav- 
ior of  his  men. 

"They  are  a  pretty  hard  set  of  men,"  he 
admitted,  "blunt,  outspoken,  and  suspicious 
of  strangers,  whose  motives  for  being  in  this 
country  are  not  clear  to  them.  They  are  al- 
ways on  their  guard  in  matters  of  business, 
against  all  traders,  especially  against  the 
American  Fur  Company.  Against  the  In- 
dians they  have  to  be  on  the  watch  day  and 
night,  if  they  would  save  their  lives  and  their 
hard-earned  wealth  in  furs.  So  you  can  see 
why  they  should  be  suspicious  of  all 
strangers,  but  they  are,  nevertheless,  brave, 
stalwart  men,  and  if  you  once  gain  their  con- 
fidence and  friendship  they  will  stand  by  you 
to  the  last  ounce  of  powder  in  their  pouch. 

* '  Don 't  be  offended  at  their  talk  and  ways, 
but  just  go  on  and  mind  your  own  business. 
If  your  story  is  true,  they  will  come  to  see 
the  truth  of  it  of  their  own  accord. ' ' 

Within  a  few  days  two  more  parties  of 
trappers  arrived  at  the  winter  camp. 
Stone's  large  party  of  twenty-five  men  had 
separated  for  their  fall  trapping  into  three 


ALDERS  AND  BRONC  239 

smaller  groups,  because  in  that  way  they 
could  more  conveniently  trap  on  a  larger 
number  of  small  streams;  but  they  all  had 
agreed  to  meet  in  Pierre's  Hole  about  De- 
cember first. 

Two  of  the  men  did  not  appear  at  the 
rendezvous.  One  of  them  had  been  killed  in 
an  accident  with  his  horse  and  the  other  had 
been  ambushed  and  killed  by  Indians. 

There  was  naturally  a  good  deal  of  ex- 
citement, when  the  two  parties  came  in. 
Stories  of  good  luck  and  bad  luck  were  ex- 
changed, and  Sam  and  Ben  listened  with  in- 
terest and  wonder  to  their  stories  of  danger 
and  adventure  on  the  wild  rivers  and  moun- 
tains, and  among  savage  Indians. 

Although  the  party  did  not  trap  during 
the  winter,  they  were  by  no  means  idle. 

It  took  one  or  two  men  to  take  care  of  and 
guard  a  herd  of  some  fifty  horses ;  several  men 
went  out  hunting  almost  daily,  others  made 
depuyer  and  pemmican,  and  each  night  was 
divided  into  three  watches,  when  at  least  one 
man  was  on  guard  duty. 

Every  night  all  the  horses  were  turned  into 
a  large  corral,  for  Rufus  Stone  would  take 


240      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

no  chances  on  having  his  company  left 
horseless  in  the  mountains. 

"It  has  taken  us  nearly  two  years,'*  he 
told  the  lads,  "of  the  hardest  kind  of  work 
to  gather  these  seventy  packs  of  beaver. 
They  are  worth  from  eight  hundred  to  a 
thousand  dollars  a  pack,  and  it  is  my  duty 
to  see  that  we  get  them  safely  shipped  to  St. 
Louis.  The  men  sometimes  grumble  at  herd- 
ing horses  and  standing  guard  at  night,  saying 
no  Indians  will  come  into  the  valley  at  night, 
but  I  have  seen  too  many  lives  and  too  much 
valuable  property  lost  through  sheer  careless- 
ness. Indians  are  pretty  sure  to  appear, 
when  you  are  not  on  guard  against  them. 

"If  we  do  not  grow  careless,  no  Indian 
tribe  in  the  mountains  can  do  us  serious  in- 
jury, so,  whether  the  men  like  it  or  not,  they 
will  herd  the  horses  in  the  daytime  and  stand 
guard  at  night." 

Half  a  dozen  fast  saddle-horses  were  al- 
ways kept  in  the  corral  to  be  ready  for  any 
emergency,  and  these  animals  were  fed  on 
brush  and  bark  of  poplar  trees. 

Men  in  the  mountains  of  course,  had  to  be 
their  own  tailors  and  shoemakers;  and  moc- 


ALDERS  AND  BBONC  241 

oasins  and  all  articles  of  clothing  wore  out 
fast  with  much  hard  usage. 

But  although  the  trappers  had  much  work 
to  do,  they  still  had  a  good  deal  of  time  for 
fun  and  sociability. 

Wonderful  stories,  some  true  and  some 
boldly  impossible,  were  told  at  the  camp  fires ; 
of  Indian  fights  and  buffalo  hunts,  of  exploits 
with  grizzly  bears  and  panthers,  of  narrow 
escapes  on  dangerous  rivers  and  in  fierce 
snowstorms.  One  of  the  men  had  seen  the 
geysers  and  hot  springs  of  the  Yellowstone, 
but  the  other  men  had  called  him  a  liar  so 
often  that  he  refused  to  repeat  the  story  of 
what  he  had  seen. 

On  fine  days  the  men  arranged  for  excit- 
ing horse-races  and  shooting-matches. 

The  shooting-matches  were  not  the  tame 
affairs  of  a  modern  target  range,  where  a  man 
stands  up  or  lies  down  and  carefully  aims  at 
his  target.  No,  these  shooting-matches  were 
a  kind  of  informal  drill,  designed  to  make 
each  man  a  dead  shot  with  a  pistol,  and  in 
that  way  make  him  a  formidable  Indian 
fighter. 

Some  ten  posts,  about  fifty  yards  apart, 


242      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

had  been  set  in  the  ground.  Each  trapper, 
mounted  on  a  fast  horse,  rode  past  these  posts 
at  full  speed,  and  the  man  who  could  not  hit 
eight  posts  out  of  ten  was  not  considered  a 
good  shot. 

In  this  target  practice  the  men  kept  the 
posts  to  their  left,  for  the  posts  represented 
Indians,  and  the  drill  was  to  prepare  the  men 
for  a  sharp  running  fight  with  hostile  In- 
dians. 

Two  of  the  men,  nicknamed  Alders  and 
Bronc,  were  great  jokers.  Most  of  their 
jokes  and  pranks  were  harmless  enough,  but 
if  a  man  went  too  far  on  the  Munchausen 
type  of  stories,  or  bragged  too  much,  or  was 
inclined  to  shirk  work  in  camp,  Alders  and 
Bronc  would  spend  days  in  devising  some 
plan  for  teaching  him  a  sharp  lesson. 

The  first  man  who  incurred  the  displeasure 
of  the  jokers  was  Storkins.  Whenever  a 
story-teller  admitted  that  he  had  been  scared 
stiff,  that  his  hair  felt  as  if  it  would  rise 
through  his  hat  when  he  heard  his  first  In- 
dian war  whoop,  Storkins  declared  that  he 
had  never  been  scared  by  anything  in  the 


ALDERS  AND  BRONC  243 

mountains,  neither  Indians,  nor  bears,  nor 
panthers,  nor  snakes. 

"Storkins,"  remarked  Bronc  one  day,  "I 
guess  you  are  a  regular  Napoleon.  You 
never  were  scared  of  anything." 

"No,  I  don't  easily  excite,  boys,"  Storkins 
admitted,  quite  flattered,  but  Sam  who  was 
sitting  near  by  thought  he  noticed  a  shrewd 
twinkle  in  Bronc 's  eye. 

A  few  days  later,  the  stories  in  camp  began 
to  run  to  snakes.  Most  of  the  stories,  how- 
ever, although  some  of  them  gruesome  enough, 
had  happened  in  Mexico,  Southern  Illinois, 
or  Florida,  where  one  of  the  men  had  taken 
part  in  the  Seminole  war  of  1837. 

But  it  was  not  long  before  the  scene  of  the 
stories  was  shifted  to  Pierre's  Hole.  Three 
of  the  men  told  that  they  had  been  opposed 
to  camping  there,  because  it  was  a  regular 
snake-hole. 

"There  are  no  snakes  here  in  win!  3r,"  sev- 
eral men  claimed. 

"You  would  naturally  think  so,"  one  of 
their  companions  agreed,  "but  that  is  where 
you  are  mistaken.  On  warm,  sunny  days,  the 


244     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

horrible  creatures  come  out  of  their  dens  and 
crawl  about  in  the  grass  and  try  to  get  under 
the  beds  in  the  tepees.  I  reckon  the  foolish 
things  take  the  tepees  for  rocks  and  just  try 
to  get  under  warm  cover." 

''Well,  boys,"  said  Storkins,  in  whose  tepee 
the  men  were  gathered  after  supper,  "they 
are  small  and  harmless." 

"Storkins,"  one  of  the  men  objected,  "you 
don 't  know  anything  about  them.  The  rattle- 
snakes here  are  the  biggest  in  the  country. 
Five  years  ago,  when  I  camped  here  with 
some  Nez  Perces,  I  saw  one  crawl  along  the 
river,  just  at  this  time  of  the  year.  I  was 
going  to  camp  for  supper  and  I  emptied  my 
pistol  at  him,  but  he  never  stopped.  I  de- 
clare he  was  at  least  five  yards  long. 

"That  night  old  Indian  Joe  was  bitten  by 
a  rattler  in  his  tepee." 

Then  the  speaker  told  with  much  detail, 
how  Indi  in  Joe,  being  a  medicine  man,  tried 
all  the  remedies  known  to  the  mountain  tribes, 
and  how  in  spite  of  all  his  skill  he  died  in 
great  agony. 

At  this  point  one  of  the  listeners  started  a 


ALDERS  AND  BRONC  245 

dispute  and  called  on  Storkins  to  bear  him 
out.  But  Storkins  suddenly  took  on  a  wild- 
eyed  look,  sprang  up  from  his  bed  on  which 
he  had  been  reclining,  rushed  for  the  open- 
ing and  yelled: 

"Get  out  of  there,  boys!  That  snake  is 
under  my  bed.  Great  Scott,  I  felt  him  un- 
coil and  saw  him  crawl  out. ' ' 

A  roar  of  laughter  from  half  a  dozen  men 
met  him  outside. 

"You're  scared  plumb  crazy!"  Alders  ex- 
claimed. '  *  There  runs  Bronc  with  the  lariat 
he  had  coiled  up  under  your  bed.  Go  and 
look  at  it!" 

After  this,  Storkins  could  never  again  tell 
a  story  in  which  he  himself  claimed  to  have 
shown  any  bravery. 

Sam  and  Ben  by  following  the  advice  of 
Rufus  Stone  gradually  gained  the  friendship 
of  the  men,  but  did  not  entirely  escape  their 
pranks. 

A  bunch  of  wild  ponies,  led  by  a  swift  black- 
and-white  pinto,  often  came  close  to  the 
horses  of  the  trappers.  Ben  had  often  wished 
that  he  had  an  Indian  pony,  and  he  had  prac- 


246      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

ticed  throwing  a  rope  and  catching  horses 
as  the  Indians  and  trappers  caught  some  of 
their  half  wild  animals. 

One  morning,  when  Sam  had  gone  off  hunt- 
ing with  some  of  the  men,  the  bunch  of  wild 
ponies  came  very  close  to  camp  and  the  trap- 
pers urged  Ben  to  try  his  skill  on  the  pinto. 

"There's  your  chance,  lad,"  Bronc  told 
him,  "if  you  want  to  corral  the  pinto.  Take 
your  best  horse  and  go  after  him.  If  you 
ride  around  and  head  the  bunch  toward  camp, 
you'll  get  them  rattled  and  rope  the  pinto. 
And  if  you  catch  the  leader,  maybe  you  can 
round  up  the  whole  bunch." 

Ben  lost  no  time  to  act  on  this  suggestion 
and  already  felt  himself  the  proud  possessor 
of  the  whole  bunch  of  Indian  ponies. 

"You'll  sure  count  a  coup,  if  you  catch  that 
pinto,"  Bronc  called  after  him,  when  he 
dashed  away. 

But  the  ponies  were  wiser  than  Ben  had 
believed  them  to  be.  They  could  not  be 
headed  for  camp.  As  soon  as  they  saw  a 
horseman  come  after  them,  they  turned  short 
around  and  headed  down  the  valley.  But 
Ben  had  come  closer  to  them  than  he  had 


ALDERS  AND  BRONC  247 

ever  been  before  and  he  spurred  his  horse  to 
his  best  speed. 

For  a  while  he  was  gaming  on  the  herd, 
but  when  the  animals  saw  that  they  were 
being  pursued  in  earnest,  they  began  to  draw 
away  from  Ben.  However,  the  boy  kept 
going,  thinking  that  he  would  soon  tire  them 
out.  But  instead  of  tiring  the  ponies,  his 
own  horse  soon  became  winded,  while  the 
ponies,  drawing  farther  and  farther  away, 
stopped  and  looked  at  him  from  time  to  time, 
as  if  to  say:  " Aren't  you  coming f " 

About  two  hours  later  Ben  returned  to 
camp  very  much  crestfallen  and  almost  in 
tears,  his  horse  still  wet  and  utterly  tired 
out. 

"I  can't  catch  him,"  he  said,  choking  down 
the  tears.  "They're  too  fast  for  my  horse." 

When  the  boy  had  disappeared  into  his 
lodge,  Alders  angrily  rebuked  his  friend  of 
many  jokes : 

"Bronc,  you  bloody  old  Indian,"  he  reviled 
him,  "aren't  you  ashamed  of  playing  one  of 
your  dirty  tricks  on  a  small  boy?  I  reckon 
you'd  be  mean  enough  to  scalp  a  baby  before 
he  has  any  hair.  The  boy  doesn't  even  BUS- 


248     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

pect  that  you  guyed  him.  Confound  your 
shriveled  old  hide,  Bronc!  I'll  get  the  boys 
to  string  you  up  on  the  big  poplar,  if  you 
don't  get  on  your  old  Pawnee  mare  right 
away  and  help  me  catch  that  pinto!" 

Bronc  tried  to  argue  the  matter.  '"Look 
here  now,  Alders,"  he  protested.  "I've  got 
to  finish  these  moccasins,  I  am  almost  bare- 
footed now.  I  didn't  think  the  kid  would  take 
it  so  hard.  I'm  not  sure,  we  can  catch  that 
fool  pinto  in  any  way  we  try." 

"Get  on  your  hoss,  I  say,"  Alders  re- 
peated. "Shame  on  you  for  fooling  an  un- 
suspecting boy!  Get  a  move  on,  old  man. 
I'll  never  help  you  play  another  trick,  if  you 
don't  help  me  catch  that  pinto!" 

The  last  threat  seemed  to  have  helped  Bronc 
to  make  up  his  mind,  and  in  half  an  hour  the 
two  men  quietly  rode  out  of  camp,  each  lead- 
ing an  extra  horse. 

"We  are  just  going  to  have  a  little  fun  by 
ourselves,"  Alders  told  one  of  the  men,  who 
wanted  to  know  what  deviltry  was  under  way 
now. 

The  two  men  knew  the  country  and  the 
habits  of  the  herd  of  ponies  they  were  after, 


ALDERS  AND  BRONC  249 

and  in  about  two  hours  they  came  in  sight  of 
the  pinto  and  his  bunch. 

Alders  now  mounted  his  extra  horse,  which 
was  a  fast  animal  and  not  at  all  tired.  For 
several  miles  he  drove  the  wild  ponies  down 
the  valley,  then  he  turned  them  so  that  they 
would  have  to  pass  a  narrow  canyon  at  the 
end  of  which  Bronc  was  waiting  on  his  fast 
Pawnee  mare. 

The  wild  ponies,  by  this  time  were  getting 
tired,  but  when  they  saw  themselves  trapped 
in  a  canyon,  there  began  a  wild  scramble  from 
one  end  of  the  canyon  to  the  other.  But 
whenever  they  approached  one  of  the  exits, 
a  fearsome-looking  horseman  with  a  coiled 
rope  dashed  at  them  and  barred  the  way. 
In  this  way,  even  the  wily  and  almost  tireless 
pinto  could,  at  last,  not  keep  out  of  the  horse- 
men's way.  Bronc  threw  the  rope  around  his 
neck,  and  the  Pawnee  mare  stretched  the  rope 
and  threw  the  wild  pinto  sprawling  on  the 
ground. 

Before  the  wild  animal  had  time  to  get 
his  wind,  Alders  had  a  heavy  Spanish  saddle 
on  him  and  was  on  his  back.  For  ten  or  fif- 
teen minutes  the  pinto  reared  and  kicked  and 


250      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

bucked,  then  he  gave  up  the  contest.  By  this 
time  he  was  so  tired  out  that  it  took  a  sharp 
touch  of  the  rowels  to  make  him  move  at  all, 
and  just  before  sunset,  Alders  rode  the  pinto 
up  to  Ben's  lodge. 

*  *  Come  out  here,  kid ! "  he  called.  '  *  Here 's 
that  gol-durned  pinto.  He's  a  well-broke 
hoss,  I  swear.  I'm  tired  of  riding  the  critter, 
you  get  in  the  saddle  and  ride  him  around  a 
bit!" 


CHAPTER  XXVin 

THE  TRAPPER'S  PLAN 

AFTER  the  event  with  the  pinto,  Ben  was 
like  the  adopted  son  of  Bronc  and  Alders. 
They  willingly  taught  him  woodcraft  and 
horsemanship,  they  showed  him  how  to  tan 
hides  and  make  moccasins,  and  they  never 
tired  of  telling  him  innumerable  hair-raising 
stories  of  their  life  in  the  mountains  and 
among  the  Indians.  When  the  other  men 
twitted  them  with  the  lies  with  which  they 
filled  the  boy's  head,  they  angrily  resented 
the  gibes  and  vowed  that  to  the  kid  they  told 
nothing  but  the  gospel  truth. 

Sam  had  followed  Stone's  advice,  and  had 
never  argued  again  or  explained  his  story 
to  the  trappers ;  but  there  had  gradually  come 
a  change  of  heart  over  the  men.  They  no 
longer  doubted  the  story  as  Sam  had  told  it. 
They  had  seen  no  indication  that  the  lads  were 
spies  of  the  company.  There  was  no  doubt 
that  the  lads  were  just  two  tenderfeet,  who 

251 


252      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

had  actually  undertaken  the  dangerous  jour- 
ney across  the  plains  and  the  mountains  in 
company  with  two  other  tenderfoot  kids  who 
had  been  captured  by  the  Blackf  eet. 

The  loss  of  their  friend  Stubbs,  the  men  also 
laid  to  a  marauding  band  of  Blackf  eet.  They 
had  found  the  body  of  Stubbs  scalped  and 
mutilated,  and  his  furs  and  traps  gone.  But 
of  the  perpetrators  of  the  outrage  they  had 
found  no  trace,  except  some  moccasin-tracks 
in  the  soft  mud  of  a  beaver  dam.  All  the 
other  tribes  in  that  part  of  the  mountains, 
the  Shoshones,  the  Nez  Perces,  and  the  Flat- 
heads  were  friendly  to  the  whites.  They 
might  steal  some  unguarded  horses,  but  they 
would  not  commit  murder.  There  was  no 
doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  one  that  some  young 
Blackfeet  had  committed  the  crime,  and  the 
tribe  ought  to  be  so  severely  punished  that 
none  of  them  would  again  touch  a  white  man. 

"We  can  lick  the  whole  blooming  tribe,'* 
some  of  the  hot-heads  declared,  "and  we 
ought  to  go  after  them  as  soon  as  we  can  cross 
the  range,  to  catch  them  before  they  get 
away." 

"Yes,  you  fellows  are  good  at  big  talk," 


THE  TRAPPER'S  PLAN          253 

Stone  remonstrated  with  them.  '  *  Why  didn  't 
you  go  after  the  rascals  that  raised  the  hair 
off  poor  Stubbs?  They're  the  gang  you 
should  have  licked.  You  could  have  found 
them,  all  right,  if  you  had  only  gone  after 
them  instead  of  pulling  out  of  the  country  as 
soon  as  you  found  a  few  redskins  were  prowl- 
ing around. 

"I'm  not  going  to  start  a  war  on  the  Black- 
feet  and  have  them  make  wolf -meat  of  half  of 
you  fellows.  I  want  to  bring  you  back  to 
St.  Louis.  And  I  reckon,  you  want  to  take 
your  furs  with  you  and  not  slave  two  long 
years  in  the  mountains  for  nothing." 

The  mountain  trappers  in  those  days  were 
in  many  respects  white  men  turned  Indians. 
Like  Indians  they  did  not  always  obey  their 
leader,  and  they  often  committed  outrages 
against  the  Indians  that  were  worse  than 
those  which  the  Indians  committed  against 
the  whites. 

When,  at  last,  spring  came  and  the  trap- 
pers were  ready  to  move,  Stone  had  his  plans 
and  orders  ready. 

Most  of  the  men  he  asked  to  remain  in  the 
main  camp.  "You  may  trap  any  of  the 


254     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAKNING 

streams  you  can  reach  from  the  main  camp, 
without  being  away  more  than  a  few  days, 
but  at  least  half  of  you  must  stay  and  guard 
the  camp.  We  have  now  about  seventy  packs 
of  fur,  each  worth  nearly  a  thousand  dollars, 
or  even  more.  It  is  all  we  have  to  show  for 
two  years  of  work  and  hardship  and  danger. 

"We  also  leave  most  of  the  horses  with 
you.  Take  care  of  them,  men!  Don't  let 
any  Indians  put  us  afoot.  If  you  do,  all  our 
work  is  lost,  because  we  can  not  take  our 
furs  to  market!" 

With  ten  of  the  coolest  and  most  reliable 
men,  Stone  proposed  to  cross  the  range  into 
the  Blackfoot  country  to  discover,  if  possible, 
the  whereabouts  of  the  lost  boys. 

He  tried  to  persuade  Sam  and  Ben  to  re- 
main in  camp  with  the  other  men,  explain- 
ing that  this  trip  into  the  Blackfoot  country 
would  be  a  hard  and  very  dangerous  venture, 
even  to  the  most  hardened  and  experienced 
mountain  men. 

But  the  two  lads  pleaded  so  earnestly  to  be 
allowed  to  join  them  that  Stone  gave  them 
permission  to  come  along,  the  lads  assuring 
him  that  they  would,  like  good  soldiers,  obey 


THE  TRAPPER'S  PLAN         255 

his  orders  to  the  very  letter  and  that  they 
would  not  flinch  at  any  hardship  or  danger. 

Ben  wanted  to  ride  his  pinto  across  the 
ridge,  but  Stone  ruled  against  this  good- 
naturedly. 

"You  take  a  fast  bay  pony,  my  son,"  he 
said.  "There  will  be  no  pintos  and  white 
horses  on  this  trip.  They  shine  too  much  on 
the  prairie." 

So  sure-footed  were  the  ponies  which  the 
men  rode  that  they  crossed  the  mountains 
without  accident,  although  the  snow  had  not 
yet  entirely  disappeared  from  the  higher 
ridges. 

When  the  party  arrived  at  the  headwaters 
of  the  Jefferson  Fork,  Stone  divided  his 
party.  Five  men  were  left  at  this  place  with 
orders  to  fortify  their  camp,  as  the  trappers 
often  did  in  those  days.  They  were  not  to 
allow  any  Indian  war  party  to  follow  the  trail 
on  which  the  men  had  crossed,  but  otherwise 
they  were  to  keep  themselves  concealed,  and 
under  no  circumstances  were  they  to  do  any 
hunting  or  trapping,  but  they  were  to  live 
on  the  food  they  had  brought  with  them. 
Their  camp  was  so  hidden  by  the  pines  and 


256     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

poplars  of  the  foot-hills  that  it  could  not  be 
discovered  until  one  was  almost  upon  it. 

"Put  out  your  fire  as  soon  as  you  are 
through  cooking,  boys,  and  place  a  man  on 
guard  every  night,"  were  Stone's  parting 
commands.  "We  may  be  gone  three  days," 
he  added,  * '  or  three  weeks.  And  possibly  we 
may  never  come  back.  But  if  we  have  to  run 
for  our  lives,  we  must  depend  on  you  to  hold 
a  place  of  refuge  for  us ;  where  we  can  make 
a  stand." 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  Rufus 
Stone,  with  five  of  his  best  men,  with  the  two 
lads  and  the  dog  Prince,  bade  farewell  to  the 
camp  in  the  foothills.  In  single  file,  and  as 
silently  as  possible  they  followed  a  small 
creek  toward  the  Jefferson  Fork.  About 
midnight  they  halted  in  a  grove  of  cotton- 
woods,  where  the  ponies  could  feed,  while  the 
men  lay  down  to  sleep. 

At  daybreak  they  continued  their  danger- 
ous scouting,  for  they  all  realized  that  they 
might  now  at  any  time  fall  in  with,  or  be  dis- 
covered by  small  hunting  parties,  if  the  Gros 
Ventre  Blackfeet  had  actually  wintered  on  the 
Jefferson  Fork. 


THE  TRAPPER'S  PLAN         257 

About  noon  they  struck  the  place  where 
the  creek  joined  a  larger  stream,  which  Stone 
felt  sure  was  the  Jefferson  Fork. 

Farther  down  this  stream,  the  country  be- 
came so  open,  that  it  would  have  been  impos- 
sible for  a  number  of  horsemen  to  remain  un- 
discovered. 

Stone  therefore  decided  that  at  this  place 
the  men  should  remain  with  the  horses,  while 
he  and  the  two  lads,  taking  the  dog  with  them, 
continued  their  scouting  on  foot. 

"It's  a  hard  and  dangerous  game,"  the 
leader  cautioned  them.  "You  must  make 
no  fire.  Keep  the  horses  staked,  and  one 
of  you  must  remain  awake  nights.  You  can 
take  turns  sleeping  during  the  day.  The 
boys  and  I  carry  food  to  last  us  about  six 
days.  Here's  good-bye  and  good  luck  to  all 
of  us!" 

Stone  and  the  boys  slowly  picked  their  way 
down  stream,  taking  care  to  remain  under 
cover  of  the  poplars  and  willows,  which  were 
beginning  to  show  the  first  signs  of  spring. 

From  time  to  time  the  little  party  carefully 
crawled  to  some  high  point,  which  offered  a 
view  of  the  valley.  The  keen  eyes  of  the 


258     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

leader  discovered  buffalo  and  elk  and  even 
saw  a  grizzly  take  a  drink  at  the  river,  but 
of  human  beings,  red  or  white,  the  mountain- 
eer could  not  discover  a  sign.  No  tepees,  no 
herds  of  ponies  were  visible  on  the  plain,  not 
even  a  haze  or  wreath  of  smoke  could  he  dis- 
cover. 

"Let  me  see  that  message  again,"  he  said 
anxiously  to  Sam,  when  the  party  stopped  at 
a  spring  at  dusk. 

' '  That  message ' '  referred  to  the  few  words 
Al  had  scrawled  on  a  piece  of  buckskin.  This 
piece  of  buckskin  and  the  medicine  of  the  old 
Shawnee,  Sam  always  carried  on  his  person. 

Sam  carefully  unwrapped  his  treasure, 
which  in  spite  of  all  his  care  had  grown  a 
little  more  soiled  and  blurred;  nevertheless 
the  words  were  there  clear  enough :  ' '  Winter 
Jeff  Fork."  If  they  meant  anything  at  all, 
they  must  mean  that  the  Gros  Ventres 
planned  to  spend  the  winter  on  the  Jefferson 
Fork  of  the  Missouri. 

"Yes,"  Stone  granted  in  a  low  voice,  "it 
says,  ' Winter  Jeff  Fork'  all  right.  But  it 
beats  me,  how  Al  could  find  out  anything 
about  their  plans,  when  he  didn't  know  a  word 


THE  TRAPPER'S  PLAN          259 

of  Blackfoot,  and  could  not  use  the  sign 
language." 

"It  is  too  deep  for  me,"  Sam  frankly  ad- 
mitted. "But  I  am  sure  that  it  is  APs  mes- 
sage and  that  we  have  read  it  right." 

"I  think  we  did,"  Stone  agreed,  "but  the 
cue  is  all  wrong,  Sam.  They  aren't  here,  and 
I  don 't  think  they  have  been  here.  You  never 
saw  elk  and  antelope  feed  so  quietly  within 
the  hunting  radius  of  a  big  Indian  camp. 
We'll  scout  down  the  valley  for  another 
twenty  miles,  but  I  don't  think  we'll  find  a 
single  Blackfoot  tepee. 

"Well,  Sam,  this  mountain  life  is  a  gamble 
for  one's  hair  every  day.  If  I  ever  get  back 
to  St.  Louis  with  my  packs,  I  shall  follow 
General  Ashley's  example  and  stay  at  home 
with  my  wife  and  children. 

"What  do  you  say  about  taking  chances  on 
making  a  fire  for  a  cup  of  tea?  It  would 
cheer  us  up  and  make  us  forget  that  we  are 
dog-tired.  After  eating  our  supper  we  can 
slip  down  stream  a  way  to  sleep." 

Sam  was  willing  to  take  the  chance,  for  he 
and  Ben  were  as  tired  and  cold  as  their  guide. 

After  they  had  eaten  their  supper  of  pern- 


260     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

mican  and  had  each  enjoyed  a  big  cup  of  hot, 
sweet  tea,  they  found  a  well-sheltered  place 
and  rolled  up  in  their  blankets. 

"Don't  one  of  us  have  to  stand  guard?" 
asked  Ben,  who  felt  as  if  there  was  an  Indian 
hiding  behind  every  bush  and  tree. 

1  'No,  sonny,"  Stone  assured  him,  "not 
while  we  have  the  dog  with  us." 

On  the  following  day,  the  fears  of  the  old 
mountaineer  were  fully  realized.  There  was 
not  an  Indian  or  a  fresh  sign  of  Indians  any- 
where on  the  Jefferson. 

What  could  have  happened?  Perhaps  the 
Crows  had  followed  the  Gros  Ventres,  and  the 
latter  had  decided  not  to  make  their  winter 
camp  so  close  to  the  country  of  their  enemies, 
but  had  gone  on  to  the  Marias  River  in 
Canada.  To  follow  them  that  far  would  be 
making  a  mad  dash  into  the  very  heart  of  the 
great  Blackfeet  country  and  would  make  a 
safe  return  almost  impossible. 

The  old  mountaineer,  who  had  many  times 
read  the  Indian  mind,  and  outwitted  or  sur- 
prised them,  spent  a  restless  night.  Grant- 
ing that  Al's  information  was  correct,  why 


THE  TRAPPER'S  PLAN         261 

had  these  Indians  changed  their  plan,  and 
where  had  they  gone? 

Putting  all  his  information  together,  he 
decided  that  no  Crows  had  pursued  the 
Arapaho  Blackfeet.  If  a  large  number  of 
Crows  had  followed  them,  Sam  and  Ben 
would  have  seen  them.  And  it  was  not  at  all 
likely  that  the  Crows  had  taken  up  a  trail 
that  was  over  a  week  old. 

He  considered  the  probability  of  their  be- 
ing on  the  Madison  or  the  Gallatin  Fork,  but 
that  would  leave  them  still  nearer  to  the 
country  of  their  enemies.  There  was  one 
other  possibility.  They  might  be  on  a  fine 
sheltered  ground  on  the  Big  Hole  River, 
farther  to  the  northwest  and  nearer  the  foot- 
hills of  the  mountains. 

"Boys,  we  shall  have  to  take  a  gamble  on 
those  Reds,"  Stone  concluded  his  mind-read- 
ing of  the  Indians.  "If  they  are  not  in  the 
valley  of  the  Big  Hole,  then  they  did  not  stay 
in  this  neck  of  the  land,  but  kept  right  on 
going  into  Canada." 

In  the  morning  they  struck  out  straight 
west. 


262     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

"Save  your  wind,  lads,"  their  guide  ad- 
monished the  boys.  "It  is  going  to  be  a  hard 
trip.  We  have  not  much  time  to  lose,  if  we 
want  to  catch  them  in  their  winter  camp. 
We  have  not  any  too  much  meat  with  us, 
we  don't  dare  to  hunt  in  this  country,  and 
you  would  not  relish  living  on  broiled 
snakes." 

"Mr.  Stone,"  Ben  asked  rather  timidly  not 
quite  sure  whether  the  old  man  was  in  earnest, 
"you  never  had  to  eat  snakes,  did  you?" 

"Well,  sonny,"  replied  Stone,  laughing, 
"I've  seen  some  hard  days  in  the  mountains. 
Most  of  us  old-timers  have  I  reckon  I  have 
eaten  almost  every  kind  of  flesh  that  lives  on 
the  plains  and  in  the  mountains  and  some  of 
it  looked  awfully  much  like  snake.  Well,  God 
made  them  all,  buffalo  and  beaver,  turtle,  and 
rattlesnake.  We  prefer  fat  buffalo,  but 
buffalo  or  no  buffalo,  I  never  saw  an  old- 
timer  starve  in  these  mountains." 

The  trip  was,  indeed,  a  hard  one.  Up-hill 
and  down-hill,  over  rocks  and  cactus-patches, 
through  brush  and  across  wild  creeks  the  old 
man  led  the  way.  He  did  not  seem  to  exert 
himself  nor  did  he  hesitate  about  his  way. 


THE  TRAPPER'S  PLAN         263 

The  lads  would  have  liked  to  ask  many 
questions,  but  they  needed  all  their  wind  to 
keep  up  with  their  guide,  who  was  always  a 
good  bit  in  the  lead. 

11  Aren't  you  looking  out  for  Indians  at  all, 
Mr.  Stone?"  asked  Ben,  when  they  made  a 
short  halt  for  lunch  at  a  mountain  spring. 

"No,  not  here.  You  are  likely  to  run  into 
Reds,  if  you  are  traveling  on  their  regular 
trails,  but  when  you  strike  across  the  brush 
and  rocks  as  we  are  doing,  you  are  not  likely 
to  meet  them.  It  is  not  the  kind  of  country 
they  like." 

Toward  evening  they  came  to  a  hollow,  cov- 
ered with  a  dense  stand  of  slender  lodge-pole 
pine,  where  the  ground  was  soft  and  covered 
with  a  thick  mat  of  dry  needles. 

"This  looks  like  a  good  camp  to  me,"  re- 
marked Stone,  as  he  dropped  his  blankets. 
"I  think  we  have  come  far  enough." 

Then  he  put  four  stakes  into  the  ground 
and  told  the  boys  to  hang  their  blankets  over 
them.  Within  the  walls  of  blankets  the  old 
man  quickly  built  a  small  fire  of  dry  sticks. 
In  about  ten  minutes  he  had  made  a  pailful  of 
tea  and  had  fried  some  slices  of  bacon. 


264     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

To  have  strips  of  fragrant,  juicy  bacon 
with  the  pemmican  and  sweet  tea  was  a  feast 
for  the  lads,  especially  as  they  did  not  know 
that  the  old  man  had  taken  along  any  bacon, 
a  very  rare  commodity  in  the  mountains. 

"Fall  to,  boys,"  the  guide  invited  them. 
"I  thought  you  deserved  a  treat  to-night. 
You  did  well  on  a  hard  trip.  Scrape  some 
sand  on  the  fire,  Sam,  we  are  through  with  it 
for  to-night." 

"May  I  give  the  dog  an  extra  piece  of  meat, 
Mr.  Stone?"  asked  Ben. 

"Do  so,  boy!  The  dog  behaved  well.  He 
followed  us  closely  and  didn't  try  to  chase 
after  any  game.  Give  him  an  extra  slice  of 
pemmican." 

While  they  were  eating,  darkness  fell  over 
the  mountain  forest.  The  stars  looked 
silently  through  the  tops  of  the  slender  pines, 
a  brook  babbled  over  the  rocks  toward  the 
Big  Hole,  and  in  the  distance  hooted  an  owl 
and  yapped  the  coyotes  and  howled  the  gray 
wolves. 

Had  the  boys  been  alone  they  would  have 
found  the  solitude  depressing  and  fearsome, 
but  the  old  mountaineer  was  in  high  spirits. 


THE  TRAPPER'S  PLAN         265 

For  an  hour  he  sat  leaning  against  a  tree  and 
told  in  a  low  voice  of  his  adventures  with  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  mountains  and  the  still 
wilder  Indians. 

When  he  had  finished  his  tales,  he  seemed 
to  -sniff  the  air  for  a  minute,  before  he  took 
off  his  moccasins  and  spread  out  his  blanket. 

1 1  Time  to  roll  in,  boys, ' '  he  suggested.  '  *  If 
those  Blackfeet  camped  on  this  side  of  the 
line,  we  should  find  them  to-morrow.  Good 
night,  lads!  Have  a  good  sleep.  We'll  have 
breakfast  at  daylight,  and  go  after  them 
again  1 ' ' 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

AFTER   THEM   AGAIN 

THE  lads  had  become  so  accustomed  to 
sleep  in  the  open,  that  the  dawn  of  day,  which 
softly  calls  all  out-of-door  sleepers,  did  not 
arouse  them.  But  the  old  trapper  arose, 
quickly  made  a  warm  breakfast  of  hot  pem- 
mican  and  tea  and  sang  out,  "Roll  out,  roll 
out,  ye  knights  of  the  blanket !  Breakfast  is 
served  in  Lodgepole  Hall ! ' '  Sam  was  awake 
at  once,  but  Ben  did  not  stir  until  Prince 
licked  his  face. 

"I  think  we  shall  soon  see  that  camp," 
Stone  remarked  still  in  high  spirits,  as  they 
noiselessly  picked  their  way  through  the  edge 
of  the  foot-hill  timber.  But  when  the  dense 
stand  of 'timber  thinned  out  to  isolated  groves, 
the  face  of  the  old  man  became  dejected. 

Below  them  lay  the  valley  of  the  Big  Hole, 
with  winding  groves  of  aspen  and  willows 
indicating  the  course  of  the  stream,  but  of 
Indians  there  was  no  sign.  Nothing  but  a 

266 


AFTER  THEM  AGAIN  267 

beautiful  uninhabited  mountain  valley  lay 
stretched  out  before  them.  A  few  long-tailed 
magpies  displayed  their  black-and-white 
plumage  as  they  chattered  curiously  in  the 
pines,  and  a  song-sparrow  trilled  his  simple 
ditty  from  a  bush,  happy  in  his  lowly  seclu- 
sion and  unconcerned  about  the  world  around 
him.  Some  wild  ducks  swam  quietly  about 
on  a  pool  below,  on  whose  edge  the  grass  be- 
gan to  show  a  faint  tint  of  green. 

"I  fear  we  are  beat  at  the  game,  lads,"  the 
old  trapper  spoke  sadly.  "I  felt  sure  we 
should  find  the  camp  in  the  valley  right  be- 
low. They  can't  have  pulled  up  stakes  and 
struck  out  for  their  summer  hunting-grounds 
in  Canada.  It  is  still  too  early  in  the  season. 
The  ice  has  not  melted  on  the  beaver  ponds 
and  the  buffalo  have  not  started  north.  I 
even  thought  I  smelled  their  camp  fires  and 
kettles  last  night." 

''You  could  not  really  smell  them,  Mr. 
Stone.  Could  you?"  Ben  asked. 

"I  surely  thought  I  did,"  the  old  man 
asserted.  "You  see  I  don't  smoke  or  chew 
tobacco,  and  I  have  often  smelled  Indians  and 
buffaloes  or  rain,  when  my  men  could  smell 


268     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

nothing  but  their  old  black  pipes.  A  man  who 
hunts  and  traps  in  these  wild  mountains  as 
long  as  I  have  done,  must  keep  a  sharp  edge 
on  all  his  senses,  or  he  will  go  under." 

Ben  looked  at  his  friend  as  if  he  had  not 
quite  understood. 

"Yes,  he'll  go  under,  get  rubbed  out,  if  he 
isn't  all  eyes  and  ears  and  nose.  And  on  top 
of  it  all  he  must  develop  a  kind  of  sixth  sense 
for  scenting  danger  and  reading  signs. 

"It's  no  wonder  that  so  many  men  go  un- 
der in  this  mountain  life.  The  Indians  are 
always  ready  to  rub  out  a  careless  man.  A 
bear  or  a  vicious  horse  may  kill  him.  He  may 
break  through  ice,  get  drowned  in  rapids,  get 
lost  and  freeze  to  death  in  a  storm.  It's  no 
wonder  that  many  a  man  who  goes  in,  is  never 
heard  of  again. 

"Well,  lads,  I  have  to  admit  it.  I  guess 
my  reckoning  has  gone  wrong  this  time. 
Those  are  the  times, — yes  those  are  the  times, 
when  they  get  you, ' '  he  closed  his  reflections. 

"When  who  gets  you?"  Ben  ventured  to 
ask. 

"The  Indians,  my  lad,"  Stone  replied 
slowly,  "or  the  bears,  or  maybe  the  snow- 


AFTER  THEM  AGAIN  269 

storm.  When  you  haven't  figured  right,  or 
read  the  signs  right.  That's  the  time  some- 
thing gets  you,"  he  finished  gloomily. 

"Like  a  poor  doctor,  I  have  made  a  wrong 
diagnosis;  and  now  my  medicine  is  all 
wrong. ' ' 

"Sam  has  some  strong  Indian  medicine," 
Ben  blurted  out. 

The  old  man's  gloomy  face  was  suddenly 
lighted  by  a  smile. 

"What  is  it,  Sam?"  he  asked.  "The  old 
chiefs  have  some  strange  medicine  for  every 
ailment  and  for  every  kind  of  bad  luck ;  and 
the  stranger  their  medicine,  the  stouter  is  the 
faith  of  their  followers." 

"I  can't  tell  what  it  is,"  Sam  replied,  "but 
my  old  Shawnee  friend,  Chief  Moquah,  did 
give  me  some  medicine,  when  he  warned  us 
against  the  Blackfeet.  He  said  they  were 
bad,  heap  bad  Indians." 

"He  did  not  tell  you  a  lie,  my  boy,"  Stone 
admitted  grimly.  "But  just  now  I  wish  the 
old  Shawnee  had  given  you  some  medicine 
that  would  draw  the  Blackfeet  out  of  their 
hiding-place. 

"Let  us  scout  down  to  the  river.    If  we 


270      THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

don't  find  them  within  ten  miles  of  this  place, 
my  medicine  was  all  wrong." 

There  were  no  signs  of  an  Indian  camp  on 
the  east  side  of  the  river,  but  there  was  no 
game  in  the  hole,  either. 

"It's  all  blazed  queer,"  muttered  Stone. 
"If  there  are  no  Indians  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, this  hole  ought  to  be  full  of  game." 

When  they  had  crossed  the  rapid  stream, 
the  old  man's  face  brightened.  There  were 
still  neither  Indians  nor  game  visible,  but 
there  was  abundant  sign  of  ponies.  The 
sign  was  not  fresh,  but  it  was  not  very  old 
either. 

"It  is  two  weeks  or  a  month  old,"  pro- 
nounced the  mountaineer,  after  he  had  closely 
examined  the  tracks,  the  cropped  grass  and 
bushes  and  every  other  sign. 

"If  they  are  in  this  valley,  they  are  farther 
up-stream,"  the  old  guide  resumed  cheer- 
fully. "Let  us  scout  up  carefully  with  the 
wind.  Follow  in  my  track  and  keep  under 
cover. ' ' 

For  an  hour  perhaps,  the  old  man  picked 
his  way  in  silence.  At  several  open  spaces,  he 
called  "Down,"  and  then  all  three  crawled 


AFTER  THEM  AGAIN  271 

on  hands  and  knees  to  the  nearest  cover 
ahead. 

At  first,  when  the  old  guide  called, 
"Down!"  Ben's  heart  seemed  to  jump  into 
his  throat,  but  soon  he  understood  that  their 
guide  only  wanted  to  make  sure  that  they 
would  not  be  discovered  by  some  stray  hunter 
on  the  hills  above  them. 

When  they  came  to  a  place,  where  the 
stream  made  a  sharp  turn,  the  old  man 
stopped. 

"Let  us  rest  a  while,"  he  said.  "This 
stalking  through  the  brush  as  if  you  were 
hunting  deer,  is  hard  work. 

"If  I  remember  right,  the  valley  widens 
again  a  little  way  beyond  this  bend.  Maybe, 
Sam,  your  medicine  will  work  yet,"  he  added 
with  a  smile. 

Again  they  trailed  cautiously  through  pop- 
lars and  willows,  and  again  and  again  the  old 
man  called  in  a  low  voice, ' l  Down ! ' ' 

Now  he  stopped  and  stood  upright  in  a 
thicket  of  willows  and  motioned  the  boys  to 
come  forward. 

Then  he  pointed  to  an  opening  through  a 
grove  of  cottonwoods.  "Look  ahead,"  he 


272     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

whispered.  ''Do  you  see  those  tepees  about 
a  mile  off.  I  reckon  they  're  the  Injuns  we  Ve 
been  hunting. 

' '  Sit  down.  We  '11  eat  a  bite  of  pemmican. 
I  am  hungry  now.  This  morning  I  had  no 
appetite ;  but  I  'm  sure  a  bite  of  cold  meat  will 
taste  good  now." 


'I  BECKON  THEY'RE  THE  INDIANS  WE'VE  BEEN  HUNTING." — Page  272. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

A   CLOSE   CALL 

1 

AFTER  men  and  dog  had  eaten  a  hearty 
meal,  the  old  man  sat  in  silence  for  some  time. 

After  a  while  Ben  asked:  "What  are  we 
going  to  do  now,  Mr.  Stone  I'* 

"Wait  a  bit,  sonny,"  the  old  man  answered 
pleasantly.  "I  am  making  medicine.  We 
shall  start  pretty  soon." 

In  a  little  while  he  was  through  thinking, 
or  making  medicine,  as  he  had  called  it. 

' '  Follow  me,  lads, ' '  he  told  the  boys.  ' '  But 
keep  low,  and  make  no  noise.  Our  game  is 
to  see  without  being  seen.  If  we  can't  beat 
the  Indians  at  their  own  game,  we  are  lost.'* 

After  they  had  carefully  walked  and  crept 
along  for  some  time,  they  came  to  a  plain 
Indian  trail. 

"Spread  out  a  bit.  We  must  not  leave  a 
trace  of  our  crossing  this  trail,"  the  guide 
whispered.  "This  is  a  dangerous  place,  let 
us  get  away  from  it." 

273 


274     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

The  three  men  with  the  dog  quickly  crept 
up  a  gentle  slope  and  concealed  themselves 
in  a  thicket  of  young  pines.  Here  they  rested 
a  while  and  examined  their  guns  and  pis- 
tols. 

"If  we  were  not  trying  to  find  the  two 
captives,"  Stone  said,  "I  should  not  be  so 
afraid  of  being  discovered.  A  small  bunch 
of  them  could  not  do  us  much  harm.  But,  if 
we  are  discovered,  before  we  have  found  the 
boys,  our  search  and  our  whole  trip  would 
be  a  failure.  We  should  have  to  strike  for 
cover  and  get  out  of  this  country  as  quick  as 
possible." 

"How  are  we  going  to  find  out,"  asked 
Ben,  "if  these  are  the  Indians  we  are  look- 
ing for?" 

"I  don't  know,  Ben,"  the  old  man  confessed 
frankly.  "They  are  no  doubt  Blackfeet. 
Just  how  we  are  going  to  find  out,  if  they  are 
the  ones  we  want,  I  don't  know,  but  we  have 
to  find  out  in  some  way. " 

The  old  man  now  picked  his  way  along  the 
slope  above  the  Indian  trail  with  the  greatest 
caution.  He  was  in  no  hurry,  and  stopped  a 
while  in  every  bit  of  good  cover. 


A  CLOSE  CALL  275 

"Why  don't  you  use  your  spy-glass!" 
asked  Ben,  when  the  guide  had  looked  intently 
for  several  minutes  at  some  dark  object  in  the 
distance  across  the  valley. 

"The  fact  is,"  Stone  informed  the  boy,  "I 
am  a  little  afraid  to  use  it  here.  The  glint 
of  reflection  from  it  might  catch  the  eye  of 
some  Blackfoot,  who  would  know  at  once  that 
some  white  men  are  near  their  camp.  They 
would  at  once  begin  to  dog  our  trail  and  would 
be  almost  sure  to  catch  us  off  our  guard. ' ' 

The  trapper  had  scarcely  finished  these 
words  in  a  low  voice,  when  a  look  of  sternness 
mingled  with  anxiety  suddenly  spread  over 
his  bronzed  face. 

"Down!  Down  flat!"  he  whispered. 
"Don't  move.  Watch  the  dog.  Look  east!" 

The  lads  did  not  need  the  warning  not  to 
move,  for  when  they  did  look  toward  the  In- 
dian trail  below  them,  they  had  such  a  scare 
that  they  almost  forgot  to  breathe. 

In  plain  view,  hardly  a  hundred  yards  away 
about  a  dozen  Blackfeet  hunters  rode  past. 
Two  or  three  had  guns,  the  others  carried  a 
bow  and  arrows,  and  some  had  only  a  spear. 
One  of  the  extra  ponies  had  a  black-tail  deer, 


276     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

another  had  a  bear  slung  and  tied  over  the 
saddle.  The  hunters  were  riding  along 
slowly,  as  if  they  were  tired  from  a  long 
trip,  and  they  were  followed  by  five  or  six 
tired  and  scrawny-looking  dogs. 

Had  the  hunters  been  looking  for  game  or 
enemies,  they  would  not  have  failed  to  dis- 
cover the  three  white  men,  for  the  latter  were 
so  poorly  concealed  by  some  young  pines  and 
other  small  brush,  that  they  expected  the  red 
hunters  to  see  them  and  surround  them  every 
moment.  If  the  wind  had  been  favorable  for 
the  Indians,  their  dogs  though  tired  and  worn 
out,  would  have  been  sure  to  give  the  alarm. 

"Great  Teton!"  muttered  the  trapper, 
when  the  Indians  had  vanished  into  a  thicket 
of  lodge-pole  pine,  "that  was  a  dinged  close 
call." 

Sam  as  well  as  Ben  were  for  a  while  too 
frightened  to  speak;  for,  although  Stone  had 
repeatedly  cautioned  them,  and  had  pointed 
out  the  extreme  peril  of  their  situation, 
thanks  to  Stone's  knowledge  of  the  country 
and  of  Indians  and  his  unflagging  caution 
nothing  had  thus  far  occurred  to  drive  these 
points  home  with  the  lads.  They  knew  they 


A  CLOSE  CALL  277 

were  traveling  in  a  dangerous  country,  but 
under  the  old  mountaineer's  leadership,  they 
did  not  seem  to  meet  with  any  danger,  and 
had  little  fear. 

"What  could  we  have  done,"  asked  Sam, 
when  he  felt  sure  that  the  Blackf eet  were  out 
of  hearing  and  that  no  more  were  coming,  "if 
they  had  discovered  us!" 

' '  Tried  to  smoke  with  them, ' '  the  old  trap- 
per chuckled,  "and  act  as  if  they  were  our 
long-lost  friends." 

"But  you  don't  smoke,  Mr.  Stone,"  Ben 
objected. 

"No,  I  don't,  sonny,  not  by  myself.  But 
you  should  have  seen  me  handle  the  pipe,  with 
these  Blackf  eet,  if  they  had  caught  us.  With 
them  I  should  have  smoked  anything,  weeds, 
killikinnick,  or  tobacco.  I  always  carry  some 
tobacco,  and  it  has  helped  me  out  of  several 
scrapes." 

"Will  I  have  to  sjnoke  if  we  get  caught?" 
asked  Ben. 

"No  boy,  you  wouldn't,"  the  trapper 
laughed,  "but  if  you  did  and  got  sick,  they 
would  think  it  a  good  joke  and  the  whole  camp 
would  have  a  good  laugh  about  it." 


278     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAKNING 

''I  thought  Indians  didn't  laugh  much!" 
Ben  asked. 

"Indians  not  laugh?"  Stone  replied. 
"Who  told  you  that?  Amongst  themselves 
they  are  the  greatest  gossipers  and  jokers 
you  ever  saw.  When  they  have  plenty  to  eat 
and  have  lost  no  scalps  they  don't  do  any- 
thing else,  but  laugh  and  visit  and  gossip  all 
day  long.  They  don't  like  to  be  laughed  at 
by  white  men,  although  they  have  no  end  of 
fun  at  a  white  tenderfoot. 

"But  let  us  get  away  from  this  place,  an- 
other band  of  hunters  might  come  along,  who 
are  more  wide  awake.  I  think  we  had  bet- 
ter sneak  a  little  farther  into  the  timber. ' ' 

In  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  they  came  to 
an  open  slope,  which  extended  from  the  hills 
into  the  valley. 

"Well,"  remarked  Stone,  "hang  it,  boys, 
but  here  we  are  stuck  until  after  dark.  We 
don't  dare  to  cross  this  open  space  in  day- 
light, and  it  would  be  too  much  hard  work  to 
climb  around  it. 

"You  lie  low  here  and  keep  quiet,  while  I  do 
a  little  hunting  with  a  club.  Our  meat  is 
running  so  low  that  I  am  afraid  we  shall 


A  CLOSE  CALL  279 

have  to  eat  snakes  before  we  get  back  to  one 
of  our  camps." 

Just  before  dark,  when  the  boys  were  be- 
ginning to  fear  that  their  guide  was  lost,  he 
returned  with  a  porcupine. 

1 1  Come  along,  boys, ' '  he  said,  * '  I  have  found 
a  nice  little  hollow  where  we  can  roast  him 
without  being  caught  at  it." 

In  a  short  time,  the  porcupine  was  skinned, 
and  four  good  sized  pieces  of  meat  were  roast- 
ing over  the  fire,  three  for  the  men  and  one 
for  the  dog. 

"It  may  taste  a  little  flat  to  you,  without 
salt,"  the  old  man  remarked,  "but  every- 
thing goes  in  the  mountains.  Porcupines 
were  made  on  purpose  for  hungry  men  with- 
out guns,  and  for  men  like  ourselves,  who 
don't  dare  to  use  their  guns. 

"Fall  to,  boys.  Young  porcupine  is  not 
half  bad.  Much  better  than  rattlesnake  or 
old  wolf.  If  you  ever  get  to  Oregon  you  may 
eat  some  real  beef  again  and  pork  roast,  and 
perhaps  your  mother  will  bake  you  a  pie  and 
a  cake,  but  to-night  we  dine  on  roast  porcu  a 
laBlackfeet." 

With  his  mother  Ben  would  have  argued 


280     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

that  he  would  rather  eat  just  half  a  ration  of 
pemmican,  but  he  knew  that  with  Eufus  Stone 
he  would  either  have  to  eat  his  share  of  porcu- 
pine or  go  to  bed  hungry.  So  he  tried  to 
imagine  that  he  was  eating  mountain  rabbit 
and  made  a  good  meal. 

"I  am  glad  you  like  it,  boys,"  Stone  re- 
marked dryly.  "We  shall  save  the  rest  for 
to-morrow.  You  see,  boys,  after  we  start  for 
camp,  we  may  want  to  travel  pretty  fast  and 
shall  probably  not  have  time  to  hunt  for  fresh 
meat." 

When  the  meal  was  over,  Stone  raked  sand 
on  the  coals;  each  one  took  a  drink  out  of 
the  little  stream  that  came  down  from  a  snow- 
bank above  them,  and  then  they  traveled 
silently  across  the  open  slope  before  them  and 
soon  disappeared  into  the  timber  beyond. 

"I  think,  lads,  we  had  better  den  up  for 
the  night, ' '  suggested  the  old  man,  when  they 
had  come  to  a  well-sheltered  spot,  where  the 
pines  had  already  spread  for  them  a  soft 
bed  of  dry  needles.  "  Traveling  through 
the  woods  at  night  is  such  slow  going  that 
it  does  not  pay  for  the  effort,  unless  you  are 
trying  to  slip  away  from  the  redskins. 


A  CLOSE  CALL  281 

"  Never  mind  the  wolves.  Let  them  howl. 
And  you  need  not  be  afraid  of  Indians  here 
in  the  pine  forest.  There  is  no  game  here 
and  no  fur  and  they  never  come  that  far  up 
the  mountains.  So  just  roll  in  and  go  to 
sleep;  I  shall  call  you  at  daylight." 

The  lads  were  so  nearly  worn  out  with 
climbing  and  crawling  and  the  constant  fear 
of  being  discovered  that  they  were  more 
than  glad  to  camp;  and  they  fell  asleep  as 
promptly  as  they  had  ever  done  in  their  own 
beds  at  home. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

A   HORSE  AND   A   DOG 

IN  the  morning,  the  trapper  did  not  build 
a  fire,  so  the  party  made  their  breakfast  on 
cold  pemmican  and  a  drink  of  water  from  a 
mountain  spring. 

They  had  slept  in  the  forest  almost  directly 
above  the  Blackfoot  camp,  and  the  boys  ex- 
pected that  the  trapper  would  approach  the 
camp  as  close  as  possible  to  look  for  some 
indication  of  the  presence  of  the  white  boys. 
But  when  the  old  man  started  to  travel 
farther  up  the  valley,  Sam  could  not  refrain 
from  asking,  " Aren't  we  going  to  try,  Mr. 
Stone,  to  get  a  look  at  their  camp?  Al  and 
Dick  may  be  right  there." 

"I  think  not,  boys,"  the  old  man  spoke 
seriously.  "I  have  already  had  my  glass  on 
the  camp.  It  is  so  placed  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  get  close  to  it  without  being 
discovered. 

"We  know  by  the  hunters  that  passed  us 

282 


A  HORSE  AND  A  DOG          283 

that  it  is  a  Blackfoot  camp,  but  from  this 
distance  I  can  see  no  sign  of  our  friends  being 
with  these  Indians,  and  I  am  afraid  of  work- 
ing closer  up  to  the  camp. 

"I  have  tried  hard  to  figure  it  all  out,  and 
I  do  not  think  the  boys  would  be  in  camp  at 
this  time.  Indians  generally  make  their 
prisoners  do  some  kind  of  work;  so  I  think 
the  boys  would  either  be  with  some  hunting 
party,  or  they  would  be  herding  ponies,  or 
they  might  possibly  be  set  to  trapping  beaver. 
The  Blackfeet  are  good  warriors  and  hunters, 
but  they  are  poor  trappers.  I  guess  trap- 
ping is  too  much  like  white  man's  work  for 
them." 

The  three  men  now  traveled  along  as  fast 
as  they  could  without  exposing  themselves 
or  starting  any  rocks  rolling  down  the  moun- 
tain slope. 

After  some  hours  of  hard  and  slow  travel- 
ing, they  came  in  sight  of  a  herd  of  ponies, 
that  were  grazing  on  a  slope  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river.  When  the  mountaineer 
saw  those  ponies  he  at  once  looked  for  a  good 
safe  cover,  took  off  his  pack,  and  began  to 
examine  the  herd. 


284     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

"Look  sharp,  boys,"  he  said,  "and  see  if 
you  can  find  any  American  horses  in  that 
herd.  And  see,  if  you  can  discover  any 
herders." 

The  herd,  which  might  have  contained 
some  five  hundred  animals,  presented  the 
usual  appearance  of  a  herd  of  half  wild 
Indian  ponies.  Blacks,  bays,  and  roans,  with 
a  few  whites  and  grays,  just  as  the  accidents 
of  the  wild  plains  had  bred  and  raised  them. 
A  few  of  the  mares  were  already  followed 
by  colts  a  few  weeks  or  days  old. 

"Gee-withers,"  remarked  Ben,  thinking  of 
the  hoar-frost,  which  was  still  on  the  grass  in 
shaded  places,  and  of  the  chilly  breeze  which 
was  flowing  down  from  the  mountains,  "why 
don't  they  keep  the  mares  in  a  warm  shed  at 
night  and  feed  them  some  hay  till  the  weather 
gets  warm.  I  should  think  the  poor  little 
colts  would  all  freeze  to  death." 

The  trapper  laughed  aloud  at  Ben's  re- 
marks about  the  Indians  keeping  mares  and 
colts  in  a  shed. 

"Why,  boys,"  he  replied,  "you  might  as 
well  think  of  one  of  these  wild  Indians  teach- 


A  HORSE  AND  A  DOG          285 

ing  a  Sunday-school  class  as  expect  him  to 
build  a  shed  or  make  hay  for  his  ponies.  The 
most  the  Indians  ever  do  for  their  horses  is 
to  cut  down  some  cottonwood  trees  for  them 
in  winter ;  outside  of  that  Indians  never  feed 
either  their  horses  or  their  dogs.  The  dogs 
fight  over  the  bones  and  scraps  of  the  camp 
and  steal  what  they  can,  while  the  horses 
shift  for  themselves  in  all  kinds  of  weather. 

"To  be  the  horse  or  the  dog  of  an  Indian 
is  surely  a  hard  life,  for  Indians  have  no  such 
feelings  as  mercy  toward  an  animal. ' ' 

Again  the  three  men  gazed  intently  at  the 
half  wild  herd.  No  herders  were  visible,  but 
the  herd  was  so  compact  that  the  trapper 
thought  some  one  must  be  keeping  them  to- 
gether. 

"Look,  boys,"  Stone  called  after  he  had 
used  his  glass  on  the  herd,  "look  sharp  at 
the  animal  just  coming  out  from  behind  a 
gray  on  the  right  hand  side  of  the  herd! 
I'll  wager  my  fur  cap,  he  is  no  Indian  pony." 

"I  see  him,  I  see  him!"  Ben  cried.  "It's 
Grunter,  Mr.  Stone.  Sure  it  is !  It's  the  big 
bay  we  dragged  out  of  the  quicksand  in  the 


286     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Platte.  Look  at  him,  Sam.  Don't  you  see 
him?  Dick  rode  him,  when  he  and  Al  went 
on  their  last  elk  hunt ! ' ' 

The  next  hour  was  the  longest  Ben  had  ever 
spent,  since  he  had  to  stay  in  during  the  noon 
recess  for  bringing  a  bullfrog  to  school  back 
in  Illinois.  There  was  no  doubt  that  the  big 
horse  in  the  pony  herd  was  Grunter,  the  aban- 
doned horse  from  the  Platte.  The  glass  not 
only  showed  clearly  his  color  and  the  way 
he  walked  and  held  his  head,  it  even  brought 
out  the  white  spot  on  his  forehead. 

"But  where  is  APs  black?"  Ben  wondered. 
*  *  He  and  Grunter  always  stayed  together. ' ' 

"If  the  black,"  suggested  the  trapper, 
"was  as  willing  a  saddle-horse  as  you  told 
me,  some  big  Indian  most  likely  rode  him  to 
death." 

Both  Sam  and  Ben  were  now  in  a  flurry 
of  excitement,  for  every  minute  they  expected 
Al  and  Dick  to  appear  near  the  herd.  At  one 
time  Ben  thought  he  saw  them  in  a  clump  of 
poplars,  then  he  thought  they  might  be  watch- 
ing the  herd  from  a  grove  of  pines,  or  they 
might  have  sought  shelter  from  the  cold  wind 
in  a  wooded  gully.  The  minutes  ran  away 


A  HORSE  AND  A  DOG  287 

into  hours,  the  sun  had  almost  reached  the 
noon  point,  but  of  Al  and  Dick  or  any  other 
herder  there  was  no  sign. 

"I  wish,"  exclaimed  Ben  impatiently,  "I 
could  go  and  scout  around  the  herd.  I  bet  Al 
and  Dick  would  be  pretty  scared,  if  I  crawled 
up  on  them  and  yelled,  'Indians!  Eun, 
boys!'" 

"That  is  a  fine  idea,  sonny,"  the  trapper 
granted  with  a  sly  smile  at  Sam.  "You  go 
and  do  that.  Life  at  the  Indian  camp  must 
be  getting  a  little  dull  by  this  time.  Sam  and 
I  promise  to  crawl  up  and  listen  to  the  drums 
and  the  yelling  at  the  scalp-dance  they  will 
have  in  honor  of  your  hair  to-night.  It  is 
just  the  right  length  to  be  yanked  off  quick, 
and  they  know  how  to  do  it." 

Ben  ran  his  fingers  through  his  hair  and 
for  some  time  bravely  controlled  his  impa- 
tience, but  very  soon,  when  three  Indians  came 
from  the  north  with  some  ten  or  twelve 
strayed  ponies,  all  his  hopes  were  shattered. 
There  could  be  no  doubt  about  the  three  herd- 
ers being  Indians,  for  the  trapper's  glass 
plainly  showed  their  brown  faces  and  jet- 
black  hair. 


288     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

The  trapper  was  the  only  one  not  keenly 
disappointed  at  this  discovery. 

"To  tell  you  the  truth,  lads,"  he  informed 
his  young  friends,  "I  did  not  expect  to  find 
the  boys  guarding  the  pony  herd. 

1 1  The  Indians  have  all  had  experience  with 
captives,  and  they  know  quite  well  that  cap- 
tives in  charge  of  ponies  could  not  help  think- 
ing of  the  possibility  of  catching  a  fast  horse 
and  trying  to  escape. 

"Two  lads  like  Al  and  Dick  who  do  not 
know  the  country,  would  of  course  have  a 
very  poor  chance  to  make  a  safe  escape,  but 
if  the  attempt  was  well  planned  and  timed 
and  luck  and  weather  were  favorable  they 
might  get  away." 

"How  would  you  escape  from  Indians,  Mr. 
Stone?"  Ben  ventured  to  ask. 

"Well,  boy,"  the  mountaineer  replied  smil- 
ing, "that  is  a  pretty  hard  question  to  answer, 
but  I  don't  think  they  could  hold  me  unless 
they  tied  me  up  or  watched  me  every  minute 
day  and  night. 

"If  I  had  a  chance  I  should  catch  two  fast 
horses.  I  should  ride  one  till  he  was  tired 
and  then  I  would  change  to  the  other.  I 


A  HORSE  AND  A  DOG          289 

would  start  in  the  evening  and  it  would  be 
travel,  travel  day  and  night  for  about  two 
days,  and  I  should  strike  across  the  country 
and  keep  away  from  their  trails.  But  you  see 
we  old  trappers  know  these  mountains  and 
valleys  better  than  the  Indians  know  them." 

"  Perhaps  Al  and  Dick  have  already  es- 
caped," Sam  suggested.  "Al  would  not  be 
afraid  to  take  a  chance." 

"If  he  is  as  cautious  as  he  is  brave,  he  has 
not  tried  it,"  the  trapper  explained.  "The 
grass  is  not  out  yet,  the  trees  and  bushes 
have  no  leaves,  and  as  large  a  camp  as  this 
one  can  send  men  in  pursuit  in  every  di- 
rection." 

Sam  and  the  trapper  agreed  that  staying 
any  longer  in  this  place  would  be  useless. 
They  felt  sure  now  that  they  had  found  the 
camp  of  the  Arapaho  Blackfeet,  who  had 
captured  the  two  white  lads  near  Independ- 
ence Rock.  But  how  they  might  discover  a 
clew  to  the  exact  whereabouts  of  the  two  cap- 
tives seemed  an  unsolvable  problem  to  Sam 
and  Ben. 

But  Rufus  Stone  looked  as  happy  and 
seemed  as  unconcerned  as  if  he  were  taking 


his  boy  friends  on  a  camping  trip  through 
the  mountains.  Just  now  he  was  amusing 
himself  with  trying  to  drop  pebbles  into  a 
pool  in  a  small  stream  about  sixty  feet  away. 

"When  I  was  a  boy,"  he  mused,  "I  used 
to  be  able  to  knock  off  the  black  walnuts 
pretty  fast  from  the  big  trees  in  Illinois  and 
Indiana.  But  there  are  no  walnuts  and  but- 
ternuts in  these  mountains,  nothing  but  the 
little  hazelnuts  which  the  chipmunks  can 
carry  in  their  cheek-pouches. 

"Well,  boys,"  he  continued,  as  he  sat  down, 
"I  reckon  we  didn't  do  so  bad  in  our  scouting. 
Hunting  for  men  is  a  good  deal  like  hunting 
for  game,  only  more  difficult.  You  have  to 
keep  going  till  you  find  something. 

"Let  us  trail  up  the  valley  a  little  farther. 
Then,  if  we  find  nothing,  we  had  better  cross 
over  to  the  other  side  of  the  ponies  and  pick 
our  way  a  little  closer  to  the  big  camp. ' ' 

They  had  not  gone  far,  when  they  came 
to  a  small  stream,  which  the  trapper  pro- 
nounced to  be  a  beaver  stream,  for  several 
peeled  beaver  sticks  were  caught  in  a  pile  of 
driftwood. 

Following  the  stream  up,  they  soon  found  a 


A  HORSE  AND  A  DOG  291 

beaver  pond,  but  the  dam  was  broken  and 
the  house  had  been  opened  by  trappers. 
However,  the  work  was  quite  fresh,  not  more 
than  a  week  or  two  old. 

1 1  Nothing  here, ' '  was  the  brief  comment  of 
Stone.  "Let  us  go  on." 

About  a  mile  beyond  they  came  to  another 
stream,  which,  in  addition  to  signs  of  beaver, 
showed  some  fresh  moccasin-tracks  on  a  trail 
along  the  creek. 

"Get  back  in  the  brush,"  cautioned  the 
trapper,  "and  follow  me  as  quietly  as  pos- 
sible." 

Some  ten  rods  up-stream  the  trapper  re- 
turned to  the  trail  at  the  foot  of  a  large  beaver 
pond. 

Here  he  stopped  and  carefully  looked  at  the 
ground.  The  soft  mud  at  his  feet  was 
covered  with  plain,  fresh  moccasin-tracks, 
large  and  small. 

The  dog,  who  on  the  long  journey  thus  far, 
had  quietly  followed  the  men,  suddenly  be- 
came interested  in  the  tracks.  He  smelled 
at  them,  and  whined,  and  was  going  to  follow 
the  trail. 

The  trapper  quickly  tied  a  string  of  buck- 


292     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

skin  to  the  dog's  neck  and  said  in  a  low  voice : 
' '  Search  him,  Prince !  Find  him ! ' ' 

Impatiently  the  dog  strained  at  the  cord, 
so  the  trapper  could  hardly  follow  him. 

Near  the  head  of  the  pond,  he  broke  away, 
rushed  straight  across  a  beaver  clearing  to 
a  brush  camp,  where  he  barked  aloud  and 
jumped  and  danced  around  as  if  in  great  joy. 

Stone  and  the  boys  followed  him  as  fast 
as  they  could,  and  there  under  a  brush  lean-to 
they  came  face  to  face  with  two  ragged,  bare- 
headed boys,  who  had  just  been  skinning  a 
beaver,  when  Prince  had  broken  in  on  them. 

"Don't  make  a  racket,  boys,  don't  make  a 
racket,"  the  old  trapper  cautioned  at  the  gen- 
eral mix-up  of  boys  and  dog. 

Al  and  Dick  were  so  changed  and  in  their 
long  hair  and  tattered  clothing  looked  so 
much  like  wild  men,  that  Sam  and  Ben  had 
for  a  moment  hardly  recognized  them. 

"You  must  get  away,  get  away  quick!"  Al 
whispered  as  soon  as  he  could  speak.  "Chief 
Black  Panther,  for  whom  we  are  trapping, 
always  sends  his  young  men  after  the  skins 
about  this  time  of  the  evening.  They  will  be 
here  any  minute.  Go  away,  quick!  Black 


A  HORSE  AND  A  DOG          293 

Panther's  camp  is  only  a  mile  away,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  creek.  We  are  all  in  great 
danger. ' ' 

"Come  along,  boys,  come,  Prince,"  the  old 
trapper  called.  "We'll  hide  in  the  woods 
and  come  back  after  dark." 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
TBAVEL,  TBAVEL! 

THE  old  trapper  and  his  boys  ate  their 
supper  far  enough  from  the  brush  camp  so 
that  the  dog  could  not  betray  them  by  any 
possible  impatient  whining  to  the  young 
Indians,  who  came  after  the  skins,  when  Al 
had  just  had  time  to  obliterate  the  tracks  of 
their  dog  friend  who  had  found  them. 

The  trapper  had  taken  the  precaution  of 
tying  Prince  securely  to  a  tree,  for  the  excited 
dog  could  not  understand  why  he  should  again 
be  separated  from  the  friends  he  had  just 
discovered.  He  would  hardly  eat  his  share  of 
pemmican,  and  again  and  again  he  sat  up, 
looked  in  the  direction  of  the  brush  camp  and 
whined  piteously  as  if  he  would  say:  "Why 
can't  I  go  back  to  them?" 

When  it  was  quite  dark,  the  trapper  started 
cautiously  for  Al  and  Dick's  camp.  Prince 
was  held  in  leash  by  a  double  cord  of  buck- 
skin, so  he  could  not  break  away  again  and 
possibly  cause  trouble. 

294 


TRAVEL,  TRAVEL!  295 

Not  until  Stone  had  satisfied  himself  that 
the  young  Indians  had  not  become  suspicious 
and  were  hiding  near  by,  did  he  approach  the 
camp. 

"We  are  all  right!"  Al  whispered  joyfully. 
"They  never  suspected  a  thing,  but  took  the 
skins  and  walked  straight  back  to  camp.  I 
watched  them  so  as  to  make  sure.  If  they 
saw  any  tracks  of  Prince,  they  thought  they 
were  made  by  some  of  their  own  dogs,  who 
sometimes  come  up  here  to  get  some  beaver 
meat. ' ' 

"All  right,  boys,"  Stone  began  to  urge 
them.  "This  pond  is  trapped  out.  Let  us 
move  your  outfit.  But  you  had  better  pack 
up  a  load  of  this  fresh  beaver  meat.  We  are 
just  about  clean  out  of  grub,  and  we  are  going 
to  travel  pretty  lively  for  a  few  days  without 
taking  time  to  hunt.  We  trappers  don't 
think  much  of  beaver  meat,  when  there  is 
plenty  of  buffalo  and  venison  in  camp,  but 
it  is  very  good  meat,  all  the  same.  It's  al- 
ways fat  and  juicy  and  as  tender  as  good 
chicken  or  veal." 

Then  turning  to  Al  and  Dick  with  a  critical 
look,  he  continued:  "Here,  boys,  put  on 


296     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

these  new  moccasins.  I  noticed  yours  are 
full  of  holes.  When  we  get  across  the  moun- 
tains, I'll  have  my  men  fix  you  up  with  new 
suits  of  buckskin;  for  you  fellows  have  been 
rotten  poor  tailors.  But  you're  all  right  to 
travel  in  the  dark. 

"Now  follow  me.  Be  careful  so  you  don't 
break  a  leg  or  sprain  an  ankle,  and  when  you 
get  tired  let  me  know.  I  reckon  we  all  want 
to  get  out  of  the  country  without  loss  of  time. 
It  would  be  a  fine  country  if  there  weren't 
any  Blackfeet  in  it." 

The  old  guide  did  not  go  very  fast,  but 
he  kept  going  without  rest  for  an  hour  or 
more  at  a  time.  He  avoided  all  trails  and 
seemed  to  follow  the  direction  of  the  Big 
Hole  Valley  downward  till  they  had  passed 
the  slope,  where  the  ponies  had  been  seen 
and  also  the  site  of  the  big  camp. 

About  midnight  they  crossed  the  river,  and 
after  resting  a  short  time  and  eating  a  bite  of 
pemmican,  he  struck  out  straight  across 
ridges  and  streams  for  the  camp  of  his  men 
on  the  Jefferson  Fork. 

When  the  first  sign  of  daylight  appeared 
on  the  sky,  he  stopped  in  a  thicket  of  young 


TRAVEL,  TRAVEL!  297 

pines,  where  the  forest  came  down  quite  far 
into  a  valley. 

"I  think,  boys,"  he  said,  "we  had  better 
lie  low  here  to-day.  If  any  danger  appears, 
we  can  vanish  away  into  the  timber  on  the 
ridge  above. 

"We  have  enough  pemmican  and  jerked 
meat  to  last  us  to-day,  and  you  boys  may 
take  a  good  sleep,  so  you  are  ready  to  travel 
another  night. 

"If  I  don't  miss  my  direction  we  ought  to 
reach  my  men  on  the  Jefferson  to-morrow 
night. " 

"Why  could  we  not  go  on  traveling  to- 
day?" asked  Al.  "Black  Panther  will  not 
know  till  to-night  that  we  are  gone." 

"That  is  where  you  take  a  chance  and  may 
be  mistaken, ' '  the  old  trapper  remarked.  * '  It 
is  quite  possible  that  some  one  might  pass 
your  camp  this  morning  and  find  that  you 
had  fled.  In  that  case,  if  we  should  be  seen, 
a  number  of  them  would  soon  be  on  our  trail. 
And  you  must  remember  that  our  pursuers 
would  travel  on  horseback  and  would  soon 
overtake  us.  But  if  we  do  not  show  our- 
selves, they  are  most  likely,  as  I  figure  it  out, 


298     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

to  start  in  the  direction  of  the  nearest  Hudson 
Bay  post." 

In  order  to  find  a  place  still  more  safe,  they 
traveled  up  hill  across  the  first  ridge  and  half 
way  up  the  slope  of  the  second  ridge,  and 
made  their  camp  in  a  place  from  which  they 
could,  like  a  wild  mountain  sheep,  watch  the 
country  below.  Here  the  old  guide  roasted 
some  beaver  meat  over  a  fire  of  dry  sticks, 
whose  smoke,  he  felt  sure  could  not  be  seen 
in  the  mist  that  was  hanging  over  the  pines. 
The  boys,  although  they  had  not  complained, 
were  dog-tired,  as  Ben  put  it,  and  Al  and 
Dick  thought  they  had  never  tasted  anything 
so  good  as  the  hot,  sweet  tea  to  which  the 
old  man  treated  them. 

In  the  Blackfoot  camp,  tea  and  sugar  had 
been  unknown,  and  Al  and  Dick  had  even  been 
on  short  meat  rations  all  winter  until  the 
chief  had  sent  them  out  to  catch  beaver. 

After  their  warm  breakfast  the  boys  felt  so 
much  revived  that  they  urged  their  guide  to 
push  on. 

For  a  while  the  old  mountaineer  listened 
to  them  in  silence,  but  when  the  lads  had  ex- 
hausted their  arguments  he  gave  them  some 


TRAVEL,  TRAVEL!  299 

new  points  on  the  Indian  game,  as  he  called  it. 

"Let  me  tell  you,  boys,"  he  began,  "I  wish 
to  push  on  worse  than  you,  but  many  good 
men  have  gone  under  in  this  Indian  country 
because  they  played  the  game  wrong.  They 
act  as  if  they  knew  that  things  would  take 
the  best  turn  for  them,  but  a  man  ought  to 
act  as  if  he  knew  that  things  would  take  the 
worst  turn  for  him. 

"You  see  if  Black  Panther  learns  of  your 
flight  this  morning  and  sends  runners  out  in 
all  directions,  one  of  them  would  be  quite 
likely  to  discover  us ;  and  once  discovered  we 
should  have  a  hard  time  to  get  away. 

"I  think  we  had  better  take  a  good  rest 
here  to-day  and  travel  again  to-night.  That 
is  the  safest  plan  and  would  give  us  a  start 
of  them  of  about  sixty  miles. ' ' 

"How  far  will  one  of  those  Indian  runners 
go  in  a  day?"  asked  Dick. 

"I  have  never  had  a  chance  to  time  one," 
replied  the  trapper,  "but  from  the  way  I  have 
known  them  to  get  news  from  one  camp  to 
another,  I  believe  they  make  a  hundred  miles 
a  day." 

When  the  sun  had  set,  the  party  again 


300     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

started  for  the  Jefferson  Fork,  and  although 
Stone  was  nearly  sixty  years  old,  the  boys  had 
all  they  could  do  to  keep  up  with  him. 

Soon  after  daylight  they  reached  the  camp 
on  the  Jefferson  but  to  their  great  disappoint- 
ment it  was  deserted. 

On  a  pole  the  men  had  left  a  note :  *  *  Some 
blasted  grizzlies  cleaned  us  out  of  grub,"  it 
said.  "We  have  gone  to  the  foot-hill  camp." 

"The  same  old  story!"  Stone  gave  vent 
to  his  anger.  "I  suppose  the  whole  crowd 
went  up  the  creek  fishing.  They  got  tired  of 
waiting  just  like  a  gang  of  boys.  If  some 
of  them  had  stayed  in  camp,  as  I  told  them  to 
do,  the  bears  could  not  have  stolen  their  meat. 
It's  too  bad  one  can't  give  these  fellows  a 
spanking  when  they  deserve  it." 

They  were  now  so  far  ahead  of  any  run- 
ners the  chief  might  have  sent  out  that  Stone 
felt  it  was  safe  to  continue  their  travel. 

The  endurance  of  the  old  guide  was  a  mar- 
vel to  the  boys.  With  long,  slightly  swinging 
steps  he  led  the  way  hour  after  hour  without 
a  sign  of  fatigue. 

"Dick,"  remarked  Ben  as  he  scrambled 
along  in  the  rear,  "do  you  remember  that 


TRAVEL,  TRAVEL!  301 

story  in  our  reader  about  the  man  with  the 
seven-league  boots?  I  think  Mr.  Stone  has 
got  them  on.  I'll  be  mighty  glad  when  it's 
time  to  rest  for  lunch." 

In  the  afternoon  the  guide  killed  another 
porcupine,  which,  he  said,  would  give  them 
enough  meat  till  they  reached  the  foot-hill 
camp. 

"I  hope,"  he  added,  "that  bunch  hasn't 
also  cleared  out." 

They  reached  the  foot-hill  camp  at  mid- 
night, and  great  was  their  joy  to  find  the  men 
and  horses  safe,  and  as  great  was  the  joy  of 
the  men  to  see  their  leader  return  safe  with 
the  two  lads  rescued  from  the  Blackfeet. 

The  camp  cook  soon  set  out  a  meal  such 
as  Al  and  Dick  had  not  eaten  since  they  had 
left  their  hunting  camp  in  the  sand-hills. 
There  was  fried  pemmican  and  dried  meat, 
fried  beaver  and  broiled  porcupine,  with 
sweet  coffee  and  corn  bread,  the  greatest 
luxury  of  all. 

While  the  travelers  were  eating  as  if  they 
had  just  broken  a  three-day  fast,  the  men  sat 
around  the  low  fire  and  Stone  told  how  they 
found  the  boys,  and  Al  had  to  relate  again 


302     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

how  he  had  mystified  the  Blackfeet  with  the 
horseshoe  magnet,  and  how  a  boy  who  spoke 
a  little  English  had  told  him  where  their 
captors  expected  to  winter.  They  had  gone 
up  to  the  Big  Hole  because  they  were  afraid 
of  the  Crows. 

"Too  darned  bad,"  the  boys  heard  one  of 
the  men  say  just  before  they  fell  asleep, 
"that  you  couldn't  bring  back  a  few  scalps. 
Here  we've  been  in  the  mountains  near  two 
years  and  nothing  but  beaver  and  marten  and 
such  to  show  for  it." 

"Jack  Peel,  you  unregenerate  old  hea- 
then," Stone  chided  the  speaker,  "you  ought 
to  be  glad  that  you  brought  your  own 
scalp  back  from  the  Jefferson.  And  I  just 
want  to  tell  you  men,  I  have  a  feeling  that 
we  are  not  through  with  those  Blackfeet. 

"We  shall  pull  out  of  this  place  at  day- 
light. Thank  God,  we  got  away  safe  as  far 
as  we  did.  It  was  the  riskiest  piece  of  work 
I  ever  undertook  in  these  mountains. ' ' 


CHAPTER  XXXin 

A   BIG   FIGHT 

IN  the  morning  Stone  urged  his  men  to  be 
ready  to  depart  as  soon  as  it  was  light  enough 
to  follow  a  trail. 

"If  Black  Panther's  men  once  discover  the 
deserted  camp  on  the  Jefferson,"  he  warned 
them,  "they  can't  help  finding  our  trail,  and 
we  don't  want  to  give  them  a  chance  to  am- 
bush us  on  the  pass  across  the  divide." 

To  the  boys,  especially  to  Al  and  Dick,  it 
seemed  like  a  dream  that  they  were  once  more 
in  the  saddle  traveling  swiftly  and  safely  in 
a  company  of  white  men  to  whom  fear  and 
anxiety  appeared  to  be  unknown. 

There  was  no  longer  any  crawling  through 
the  brush  in  the  manner  of  a  hunted  fox,  no 
longer  any  talking  in  whispers  and  anxious 
searching  of  the  country  for  signs  of  danger. 

Boldly  and  openly  the  line  of  horsemen 
followed  the  trail,  stories  were  told  and  jokes 
and  jibes  were  bandied  about. 

303 


304     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

Although  the  four  lads  were  more  than  once 
referred  to  as  a  bunch  of  durned  fool  kids, 
the  men  really  admired  very  much  their  grit 
and  daring  in  the  face  of  danger. 

Al  and  Dick  especially  came  in  for  a  great 
deal  of  good-natured  banter. 

"If  Joseph  in  his  coat  of  many  colors,'* 
remarked  one  of  the  jokers,  "looked  anything 
like  you  fellows  with  all  your  fancy  patches 
on,  I  don't  wonder  his  brothers  chucked  him 
in  a  well." 

"Oh  dry  up,  old  Beans,"  a  friend  corrected 
him,  "quit  showing  off  your  black  ignorance. 
They  didn't  chuck  him  in  a  well;  they  chucked 
him  in  a  dry  pit. ' ' 

"You  kids  are  sure  a  fine  pair,"  came  in 
another  man.  "I  bet  a  pack  of  beaver,  you 
fellows  would  take  first  prize  in  a  tramp  show 
on  the  water  front  at  old  St.  Louis.  I  swear 
some  of  us  will  have  to  ride  ahead  to  tie  up 
the  dogs,  or  they  will  never  let  you  come  into 
camp." 

Although  the  men  were  all  desirous  of 
reaching  the  camp  in  Pierre's  Hole  as  soon 
as  possible,  they  could  not  travel  fast  enough 
to  suit  their  leader. 


A  BIG  FIGHT  305 

"Jab  their  ribs  a  little  bit,  boys,"  he  urged 
again  and  again.  *  *  Don 't  let  them  loaf ;  this 
isn  't  a  pack  train.  Keep  them  going. ' ' 

In  reality  the  horses  were  going  as  fast 
as  the  conditions  of  the  trail  allowed,  because 
the  horses  as  well  as  the  men  wanted  to  get 
back  to  the  home  camp. 

"The  captain  has  got  it  bad,"  remarked 
one  of  the  men  to  Sam,  "but  he  can't  help  it.  I 
believe  he  would  say,  'Keep  them  going,  boys, 
keep  them  going!'  at  a  funeral.  But  we  all 
swear  by  him.  We  never  lost  a  man  or  a  pack 
of  beaver  when  he  was  around.  Did  you  ever 
hear  that  the  old  man  can  smell  Indians'?" 

Sam  had  not  heard  it. 

"Well,  he  can,"  continued  the  speaker. 
' '  He  never  said  so  himself,  but  we  all  believe 
it." 

Just  then  Stone  came  up  from  the  rear, 
where  he  had  been  watching  the  back  trail. 

"I  shall  be  very  glad,"  he  said,  as  he 
joined  Sam,  who  had  waited  for  him,  "more 
than  glad,  when  we  reach  Pierre's  Hole. 
Ever  since  we  reached  the  Jefferson,  I  have 
had  a  feeling  that  we  are  being  followed  and 
that  we  are  in  danger. 


306     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

"I  don't  think  I  am  afraid  of  Indians,  but 
I  have  a  horror  of  fighting  them  while  travel- 
ing. They  nearly  always  manage  to  make  a 
surprise  attack,  and  one  is  almost  sure  to 
have  some  killed  and  wounded,  and  you  can- 
not take  care  of  the  wounded  on  the  trail. ' ' 

It  was  only  to  rest  the  horses  that  a  short 
halt  was  made  at  noon,  then  the  train  pushed 
on  until  near  midnight ;  and  at  dawn  of  day, 
every  man  was  again  in  the  saddle. 

By  thus  driving  both  men  and  horses  to 
the  utmost,  the  train  reached  the  home  camp 
at  noon  on  the  second  day. 

The  welcome  which  Stone  and  his  followers 
received  was  truly  uproarious.  Had  any 
Indians  been  within  hearing,  they  would  have 
thought  that  there  was  a  grand  scalp-dance 
going  on  in  the  white  men's  camp. 

Stone  had  planned  to  break  camp  and  start 
for  Fort  Hall  on  the  following  day,  but  to 
his  chagrin  this  was  found  impossible,  be- 
cause Dave  Harrington  with  five  men  was 
away  trapping  beaver  and  would  not  return 
for  three  or  four  days. 

In  the  evening  the  men  planned  to  celebrate 
the  arrival  of  their  leader  and  friends  in  true 


A  BIG  FIGHT  307 

mountain  style.  Stone  consented  to  this  plan 
on  condition  that  the  horses  were  all  brought 
into  the  corral  and  that  the  camp  guard  be 
doubled,  and  that  the  grand  powwow  close  at 
midnight. 

The  men  demurred  against  these  restric- 
tions, but  the  leader  was  inflexible. 

"We  have  to  do  it  that  way,"  he  told  them, 
"or  we  can't  have  the  powwow. " 

Several  times  during  the  evening  Stone 
slipped  out  of  the  big  tent,  to  make  sure  that 
the  guards  had  not  deserted  their  posts,  for 
a  surprise  attack  by  Blackfeet  would  put  a 
sad  and  horrible  end  to  the  feasting,  singing 
and  mock  scalp-dance. 

The  feast  over,  Stone  ordered  the  double 
guard  to  be  kept  up  during  the  night,  and  he 
felt  much  relieved  when  the  day  broke  with- 
out any  signs  of  danger  having  been  dis- 
covered by  the  guards. 

After  breakfast  the  horses  were  driven  out 
in  charge  of  two  men,  but  some  ten  fast  horses 
were,  as  usual,  kept  in  the  corral  ready  for 
instant  service.  As  it  was  necessary  to  cut 
poplar  brush  and  bark  for  these  animals,  the 
men  had  often  grumbled  against  this  plan, 


308     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

but  in  this  matter,  too,  the  good-natured 
leader  was  inflexible. 

11  What's  the  good  of  a  horse  a  mile  or  two 
off  on  the  prairie,  when  you  want  one  in  a 
hurry?"  he  reasoned  with  the  men. 

"Ten  good  horses  in  the  corral  at  all  times, 
that's  the  rule  in  this  camp.  Any  man  who 
does  not  like  it,  can  take  his  share  of  the 
furs  and  leave  us." 

When,  on  the  morning  after  the  feast,  the 
horses  were  about  a  mile  from  camp,  some 
half-dozen  Indians  jumped  out  of  a  gully, 
and  by  yelling,  as  only  Indians  can  yell,  and 
by  waving  blankets  and  buffalo  robes  started 
most  of  the  animals  on  a  wild  stampede. 

It  was  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that 
the  two  herders  saved  about  a  dozen  horses 
and  at  the  same  time  beat  off  the  attack  of 
the  Indians,  some  of  whom  were  armed  with 
Hudson  Bay  guns  and  some  with  bows  and 
arrows. 

No  sooner  was  the  shooting  heard  than  the 
cry  of  "Indians!"  rang  through  the  camp; 
and  ten  good  riders  ran  to  mount  the  horses 
left  in  the  corral  and,  with  Stone  as  their 
leader,  raced  after  the  stampeded  herd. 


A  BIG  FIGHT  309 

" Don't  drive  your  horses  too  hard!"  the 
leader  warned  his  men.  * '  We  have  to  follow 
their  trail,  till  we  get  those  horses  back ! ' ' 

As  soon  as  the  mountaineers  had  over- 
taken the  raiders,  there  began  a  deadly  fight. 
Each  man  singled  out  an  Indian.  On  their 
swift  fresh  horses,  the  trappers  overtook  the 
wiry  Indian  ponies  one  by  one,  passing  each 
one  on  the  right,  and  dropping  the  naked 
rider  with  deadly  aim.  By  this  strategy  the 
fleeing  Indian  was  compelled  to  stop  and  turn 
around  in  order  to  discharge  his  gun  or  arrow 
at  his  pursuer  with  any  effect.  The  two  fore- 
most Indians,  when  they  saw  how  badly  the 
fight  was  going  against  them,  deserted  their 
horses  and  escaped  into  the  timber  along  a 
small  stream,  where  the  trappers  could  not 
follow  them. 

While  this  fight  was  going  on  some  six 
miles  or  more  from  camp,  the  men  and  the 
boys  who  had  remained  there  had  even  a 
more  stirring  time  of  it. 

"Look  out,  men,"  Stone  had  called  to  them, 
as  he  dashed  away,  "don't  fall  into  a  trap. 
Stick  to  your  fort!" 

For  a  while,  after  Stone  and  his  men  had 


310     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

left,  everything  remained  quiet,  and  the  men 
began  to  think  that  some  more  of  them  should 
ride  after  the  stampeded  herd. 

Then,  suddenly,  from  a  copse  of  poplars 
half  a  mile  away,  a  host  of  naked,  yelling 
demons  broke  forth.  Straight  for  the  camp 
they  came,  as  if  they  would  drive  their  horses 
right  over  the  primitive  breastworks  of  the 
trappers  and  in  amongst  the  lodges  and  tents. 
But  when  several  of  the  men  could  not  re- 
strain themselves  and  fired  at  the  foremost 
raiders,  the  whole  yelling  horde  swerved  and 
rode  around  the  camp  at  a  safe  distance. 

After  they  had  held  a  council,  they  again 
started  riding  around  the  camp,  yelling  in  a 
most  fiendish  manner  and  brandishing  their 
spears.  Gradually  they  drew  closer  and  be- 
gan to  shout  insults  at  the  trappers,  about 
whose  number  they  were  much  in  doubt. 

"They  are  coming  too  close,  men,"  Alders 
called  out.  "Give  them  a  pill,  half  of  you!'* 

At  the  discharge  of  the  guns,  two  Blackfeet 
dropped  off  their  horses,  and  the  trappers 
raised  a  shout  of  defiance. 

The  Blackfeet  picked  up  their  dead  or 
wounded,  but  soon  returned,  for  another 


A  BIG  FIGHT  311 

charge.  This  time,  a  chief  on  a  swift,  black 
horse  was  leading  them,  and  they  came  on 
with  a  wild  rush.  But  the  trappers  were  so 
well  acquainted  with  Indian  tactics  that  this 
time  they  held  their  fire  until  almost  every 
shot  took  effect. 

With  a  mad  cry  of  despair  the  Blackfeet 
fled,  leaving  most  of  their  fallen  behind. 
Evidently  the  number  of  trappers  was  greater 
and  their  fire  much  more  deadly  than  the 
Indians  had  expected. 

But  the  Blackfeet  were  always  bitter 
enemies  of  the  whites  and  hard  fighters  in 
battle.  They  now  rode  back  to  the  cover  in 
the  poplars,  from  which  they  soon  swarmed 
forth  on  foot  and  tried  to  approach  the  fort 
under  cover  from  all  sides. 

"Don't  shoot  wild,  men!"  Alders  called 
out.  "Make  every  shot  count.  Kemember, 
we  have  no  ammunition  to  waste!" 

And  both  men  and  boys  made  every  shot 
count.  Wherever  they  saw  a  head,  they  took 
careful  aim  at  it.  But  some  of  the  Reds  soon 
gained  such  good  cover  that  they  could  not 
be  dislodged.  Two  of  the  trappers  were  al- 
ready wounded,  several  of  their  horses  had 


312     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WAENING 

been  killed,  and  things  began  to  look  desper- 
ate for  the  few  able-bodied  white  men  left. 

"Get  your  pistols  and  hatchets  ready," 
Alders  ordered.  "If  they  come  any  closer, 
we  have  to  make  a  rush  at  them,  or  they  will 
kill  every  one  of  our  horses." 

The  fight  now  became  a  regular  siege.  If  a 
trapper  showed  his  head,  a  bullet  or  an  arrow 
was  sure  to  come  for  him.  The  Indian  bow- 
men became  especially  troublesome,  because 
it  was  difficult  to  locate  them.  Another  horse 
was  killed  and  several  more  were  wounded. 
Alders  would  have  ordered  a  charge,  but  he 
felt  sure  that  in  that  event,  they  were  almost 
sure  to  lose  one  or  more  men,  and  that  both 
of  the  young  boys  were  likely  to  be  killed. 

Now  one  of  the  men  was  seriously  wounded 
by  an  arrow,  and  Alders  peered  with  anxious 
eyes  in  the  direction  from  which  he  expected 
Stone  and  his  men  to  return.  If  they  did  not 
return  very  soon,  he  would  have  to  order  a 
charge,  for  the  men  refused  to  be  restrained 
any  longer.  "But  God  only  knows,"  he 
thought;  "perhaps  they  will  not  return." 
And  again  he  held  the  men  in  check  for  an 
anxious,  long  half  hour. 


A  BIG  FIGHT  313 

Then  a  horseman  approached  in  the  dis- 
tance, and  another,  and  another. 

1  'They  are  coming,  boys!  They  are  com- 
ing!" Alders  called  out.  "Give  the  Eeds  a 
shot,  half  of  you,  so  our  men  will  know  that 
we  are  surrounded. " 

At  the  sound  of  the  guns,  the  riders  fell 
into  full  speed,  and  approached  with  defiant 
hurrahs. 

"When  the  Blackfeet  found  themselves  be- 
tween two  fires,  they  all  broke  for  the  cover 
of  the  poplar  thicket  like  so  many  scared  rab- 
bits. Stone  and  his  men  as  well  as  the  men 
and  boys  in  the  fort  rushed  after  them  regard- 
less of  danger.  The  Indians  in  wild  con- 
fusion fired  their  guns,  but  not  one  of  them 
had  time  to  reload  his  piece.  Some  were  able 
to  mount  their  horses,  while  others  scurried 
into  the  timber  on  foot,  but  over  a  dozen  re- 
mained dead  in  the  brush  and  on  the  open 
meadow  between  the  trappers'  camp  and  the 
timber. 

In  a  very  short  time  it  was  all  over,  and 
the  men  returned  to  camp  with  shouts  of 
triumph.  And  an  hour  later,  four  of  Stone 's 
party  brought  in  the  recovered  horses. 


314     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

It  had  been  a  terrible  fight,  and  although 
none  of  the  trappers  had  been  killed,  seven 
were  wounded,  two  of  them  quite  seriously, 
and  several  arrows  had  to  be  cut  out. 

Both  Ben  and  Dick  had  had  bullets  and 
arrows  whistle  dangerously  close  to  their 
heads,  and  Al  had  an  arrow  sticking  in  his 
shoulder. 

There  was  no  sleep  in  camp  that  night. 
Some  of  the  men  stood  guard,  and  Stone 
did  not  have  to  urge  them  to  keep  a  sharp 
lookout.  The  wounded  were  carefully 
tended,  and  the  men  not  on  duty  performed 
a  real  scalp-dance.  It  was  a  truly  weird 
though  joyful  night,  such  as  Ben  and  Dick 
had  not  pictured  in  their  wildest  dreams. 

The  next  day  Harrington  and  his  men  re- 
turned, and  were  much  disappointed  that 
they  had  missed  the  big  fight. 

Within  a  few  days,  as  soon  as  the  wounded 
men  were  able  to  travel,  both  trappers  and 
boys  bade  farewell  to  the  scene  of  their  happy 
winter  camp  and  terrible  fight,  and  started  for 
Fort  Hall. 

"Let  us  travel,"  Stone  advised,  "while  the 
traveling  is  good.  I  know  that  there  has 


HAD  AN   ARROW    STICKING   IN   HIS   SHOULDER. — Page  314. 


A  BIG  FIGHT  315 

been  much  howling,  and  slashing  of  bodies 
and  cutting  of  fingers  in  the  Blackf  oot  camp ; 
but  as  soon  as  they  get  over  their  mourning, 
they  will  again  come  spying  around  this  place. 
"Well,  we  shall  turn  Pierre's  Hole  over  to 
them.  We  have  enough  beaver,  and  I  guess 
we  have  all  seen  enough  mountains  and  more 
than  enough  of  Indians." 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

THE  END   OF   THE   TRAIL 

AT  Fort  Hall  the  four  lads  bade  farewell 
to  their  friends  and  benefactors. 

Most  of  the  men  returned  to  St.  Louis  with 
their  leader,  while  the  boys  continued  their 
journey  to  the  Far  West. 

One  small  pack  of  beaver-skins  Stone 
promised  to  deliver  to  Moquah,  the  old  Shaw- 
nee,  on  the  Big  Blue. 

''Tell  the  chief,"  Sam  requested,  "that  the 
white  boys  wish  him  to  sleep  under  a  warm 
beaver  robe,  when  the  frost  has  hardened  the 
ground. 

"Tell  him  also  that  we  met  the  Blackfeet 
and  fought  them  in  battle  like  men,  that  I 
carried  his  medicine  with  me  to  the  Willa- 
mette, and  that  after  many  moons  and  win- 
ters we  expect  to  meet  him  again  in  the  white 
man's  heaven." 

When  the  lads  reached  the  Hudson  Bay 
post  of  Walla  Walla  on  the  Columbia,  they 

316 


THE  END  OF  THE  TRAIL       317 

made  a  side  trip  to  Waiilatpu,  the  station  of 
Marcus  Whitman,  who  supplied  them  with 
everything  they  needed  until  they  would 
reach  the  great  Hudson  Bay  post  of  Van- 
couver, on  the  lower  Columbia  near  the  pres- 
ent city  of  Portland,  Oregon. 

The  journey  from  Vancouver  to  the  Ameri- 
can colony  on  the  Willamette  was  like  a  holi- 
day trip  as  compared  with  the  long  trail 
behind  them.  When  they  reached  the  settle- 
ments near  the  present  city  of  Salem,  Oregon, 
they  were  greeted  as  though  risen  from  the 
dead ;  for  parents  and  friends  had  given  them 
up  as  lost,  when  they  had  not  arrived  by  the 
close  of  the  year. 

In  the  numerous  Indian  wars,  which  began 
in  1847  with  the  Cayuse  war,  waged  against 
the  Indian  murderers  of  Dr.  Whitman  and 
his  family,  both  Ben  and  Dick  served  their 
new  home  State  until  fighting  Indians  became 
a  very  unromantic  business  with  them;  for 
these  wars  did  not  cease  until  the  savage 
Modocs  were  subdued  in  1873. 

The  dog  Prince  arrived  at  the  Willamette 
somewhat  footsore,  but  with  his  fighting  spirit 
undiminished. 


318     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

To  the  missionaries  lie  would  have  been  a 
very  undesirable  companion,  because  his 
prejudice  that  all  Indians  and  Indian  dogs 
were  bad  could  never  be  changed.  For  more 
than  one  Indian  dog,  Ben  had  to  pay  with 
good  white  flour  and  beef,  and  on  numerous 
occasions  he  had  to  tie  him  up  hurriedly  so 
he  could  not  start  war  against  peaceful, 
Christian  Indians.  But  Ben  and  Dick  loved 
the  big  Dane  all  the  more  for  his  very  faults. 

HISTORICAL  RETROSPECT 

The  first  white  men  who  explored  Oregon, 
after  the  memorable  journey  of  Lewis  and 
Clark,  were  employees  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  and  American  trappers  and  trad- 
ers, but  the  American  traders  could  not  suc- 
ceed against  the  powerful  British  monopoly. 

For  about  half  a  century  the  great  region 
embracing  Oregon,  Idaho,  Washington,  and 
British  Columbia  was  held  jointly  by  the 
United  States  and  England.  Little  was 
known  of  the  far-away  wilderness,  which  was 
considered  unfit  for  white  settlers. 

However,   about  1832   occurred  an  event 


THE  END  OF  THE  TRAIL       319 

which  aroused  the  missionary  zeal  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States. 

One  winter  day  four  Nez  Perce  Indians 
appeared  on  the  streets  of  St.  Louis.  In 
those  days  Indians  from  the  Plains  were  no 
curiosity  at  St.  Louis,  but  these  four  Indians 
had  come  two  thousand  miles  from  beyond 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  through  many  hostile 
tribes;  and  they  had  not  come  to  trade  or 
beg  or  secure  strong  drink,  they  had  come  to 
learn  of  the  white  man's  God  and  find  the 
white  man's  Book  of  Heaven. 

It  seems  strange  that  they  should  have 
failed  to  find  in  St.  Louis  what  they  were 
seeking.  Two  of  the  messengers  took  sick 
and  died.  When  the  two  survivors  paid  a 
farewell  visit  to  General  Clark,  whose  visit 
of  thirty  years  ago  they  still  remembered, 
one  of  them  made  a  speech,  which  by  its  deep, 
childlike  pathos,  appealed  to  the  heart  of 
thousands  of  Christian  men  and  women. 

"I  came  to  you,"  the  speaker  said,  "over 
a  trail  of  many  moons  from  the  setting  sun. 
You  were  the  friend  of  my  fathers  who  have 


320     THE  SHAWNEE'S  ^VAENING 

all  gone  the  long  way.  I  came  with  one  eye 
partly  opened  for  more  light  for  my  people, 
who  sit  in  darkness.  I  go  back  with  both 
eyes  closed.  How  can  I  go  back  blind,  to 
my  blind  people?  I  made  my  way  to  you 
with  strong  arms,  through  many  enemies  and 
strange  lands,  that  I  might  carry  back  much 
to  them.  I  go  back  with  both  arms  broken 
and  empty. 

"The  two  fathers  who  came  with  us — the 
braves  of  many  winters  and  wars  we  leave 
asleep  here  by  your  great  water  and  wigwam. 
They  were  tired  in  many  moons,  and  their 
moccasins  wore  out. 

"My  people  sent  me  to  get  the  white  man's 
Book  of  Heaven.  You  took  me  where  you 
allow  your  women  to  dance  as  we  do  not  ours, 
and  the  Book  was  not  there.  You  took  me 
where  they  worship  the  Great  Spirit  with 
candles,  and  the  Book  was  not  there.  You 
showed  me  the  images  of  good  spirits  and 
pictures  of  the  good  land  beyond,  but  the 
Book  was  not  among  them  to  tell  us  the 
way. 

"I  am  going  back  the  long,  sad  trail  to 
my  people  of  the  dark  land.  You  make  my 


THE  END  OF  THE  TRAIL       321 

feet  heavy  with  burdens  of  gifts,  and  my 
moccasins  will  grow  old  in  carrying  them, 
but  the  Book  is  not  among  them. 

"When  I  tell  my  poor,  blind  people,  after 
one  more  snow,  in  the  big  council,  that  I  did 
not  bring  the  Book,  no  word  will  be  spoken 
by  our  old  men  or  by  our  young  braves. 
One  by  one  they  will  rise  up  and  go  out  in 
silence.  My  people  will  die  in  darkness,  and 
they  will  go  on  the  long  path  to  the  other 
hunting-grounds.  No  white  man  will  go  with 
them  and  no  white  man's  Book  to  make  the 
way  plain.  I  have  no  more  words." 

Only  one  of  the  Indians  returned  to  his 
people,  his  companion  died  of  the  hardships 
of  the  long  trail. 

But  the  appeal  of  the  sad,  old  Indian  was 
not  lost.  Jason  Lee,  Marcus  Whitman,  and 
other  brave  apostles  of  the  Christian  faith 
answered  this  strange  pathetic  cry  from 
Macedonia  beyond  the  Western  Mountains, 
and  they  carried  the  light  of  the  Gospel  and 
the  Book  of  Heaven  to  the  tribes  that  sat  in 
darkness. 

And  when  the  missionaries  had  brought  to 


322     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

the  Indians  the  Book  of  the  white  man's 
Heaven,  they  carried  back  to  their  white 
brethren  true  knowledge  of  the  Oregon  coun- 
try. They  told  of  its  great  rivers  and  har- 
bors, of  its  wonderful  mountains  and  forests, 
and  especially  of  its  fertile  soil  and  mild 
climate. 

The  information  made  public  in  speeches 
and  in  print  by  Jason  Lee,  Marcus  Whitman, 
and  many  others,  created  a  great  interest  in 
Oregon,  and  for  about  ten  years,  beginning 
at  the  time  of  our  story,  caused  thousands  of 
hardy  American  pioneers  to  make  the  long, 
overland  journey  from  the  Missouri  River  to 
Oregon. 

One  can  not  help  asking,  why  did  these 
people  travel  three  thousand  miles  to  Oregon, 
when  the  whole  vast  region  between  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Rocky  Mountains  was 
still  a  wilderness  ? 

The  pioneers  were  urged  on  by  several  mo- 
tives. 

They  were  true  Americans  with  the  love  of 
adventure  bred  in  their  blood.  They  were 
patriotic  and  wished  to  save  Oregon  for  the 


THE  END  OF  THE  TRAIL       323 

United  States  against  the  claims  of  England. 

Moreover,  while  the  farmers  west  of  the 
Alleghanies  could  raise  grain  and  meat  and 
fruit  in  abundance,  they  had  almost  no  market 
for  their  products,  for  the  days  of  railroads 
had  not  yet  come.  So  cheap  were  all  the 
products  of  the  farm  that  ears  of  corn  were 
sometimes  used  as  fuel  on  the  Missouri  River 
steamboats.  From  Oregon,  on  the  other 
hand,  ocean  vessels  could  go  to  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  and  to  China  and  to  Russian  Alaska. 
And  very  soon  the  California  gold  fields  fur- 
nished a  most  profitable  market.  The  first 
shipment  of  Oregon  apples  reaching  San 
Francisco  sold  for  $125.00  a  bushel. 

American  trappers  and  fur-traders  ex- 
plored the  Oregon  country  and  acted  as 
guides  to  the  missionaries  and  immigrants. 
The  pioneer  immigrants  built  homes,  schools 
and  -churches,  and  planted  farms  and  gardens 
west  of  the  mountains.  In  that  way  they 
saved  for  the  United  States  the  area  now 
embraced  in  Oregon,  Washington,  and  Idaho. 

In  1846  Great  Britain  accepted  the  49th 
parallel  as  the  boundary  between  the  United 


324     THE  SHAWNEE'S  WARNING 

States  and  the  British  possessions,  and  in 
1859  Oregon  was  admitted  as  a  State  into  the 
Union. 

Americans  have  always  read  with  pride 
the  stories  of  their  great  pioneers;  Daniel 
Boone,  Lewis  and  Clark,  Kit  Carson,  James 
Bridger,  and  many  others.  We  should  also 
honor  the  memories  and  read  with  pride  the 
stories  of  our  great  men  of  the  Book,  the 
heroes  who  carried  the  divine  message  of 
Peace  on  Earth  and  Good  Will  to  Men :  Jason 
Lee,  Father  De  Smet,  and  Marcus  Whitman, 
missionary,  prophet,  and  martyr  of  Oregon. 


THE  END 


ON  THE  TRAIL  OF  THE  5IOUX 

The  Adventures  of  Two  Boy  Scouts  oo 
the  Minnesota  Frontier 

By   D.    LANQE 
illustrated    12  mo    Cloth    Price,  Net,  $1.50 

THIS  story  was  written  by  a  prominent 
educator  to  satisfy  the  insistent  demand  of 
active  boys  for  an  ''Indian  Story,"  as  well  as 
to  help  them  to  understand  what  even  the  young 
endured  in  the  making  of  our  country.  The  story 
is  based  on  the  last  desperate  stand  of  tne  brave 
and  warlike  Sioux  tribes  against  the  reeBBtles* 
tide  of  white  men's  civilization,  the  thrilling 
scenes  of  which  were  enacted  on  the  Minnesota 
frontier  in  the  early  days  of  the  Civil  War.  I 

"  It  is  a  book  which  will  appeal  to  yowag'  and  eld 
alike,  as  the  incidents  are  historically  correct  and 
related  iu  a  wide-awake  manner."  —  PhiladeipM* 
Press. 

"  It  seems  like  a  Strug*,  tnM  story  nor*  than 
fiction.     It   is  well  written  and  IB  good  taste,  wid 
it  can  be  commended  to  ail  bo%  nadeM  and  to  I 
«f  Bheteelden.*—  Hariferd  Times. 

THE  SILVER  ISLAND  OP 
THE   CHIPPEWA 

By  D.   LANQE 
Illustrated    12010    Cloth    Price,  Net,  $1.50 

LJKRE  is  a  boys'  book  that  tells  of  the  famous 
*  *  Silver  Island  in  Lake  Superior  from  which 
it  is  a  fact  that  ore  to  the  value  of  $3,089,000 
was  taken,  and  represents  a  youth  of  nineteen 
and  his  active  smart  brother  aged  eleven  as 
locating  it  after  eight  months  of  wild  life,  dur- 
ing which  they  wintered  on  Isle  Royale.  Their 
success  and  escape  from  a  murderous  half-breed 
are  due  to  the  friendship  of  a  noble  Chippewa 
Indian,  and  much  is  told  of  Indian  nature  and 
arays  by  one  who  thoroughly  knows  the  subject. 

"  There  Is  no  call  to  buy  cheap.  I  mposslble  ttoM 
br  boys'  reading-  while  there  is  such  a  book  as  this 
"—Philadelphia  Inquirer. 


THE  SILVER  ISLAND 

OF  THE  CHIPPEWA 


for  a*J*  by  mil  bookseller*  or  meat  pomtpmM  ma 
ot  price  ar  the  pmbUmben 

.OTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD   CO..  BOSTOS 


LOST  IN  THE  FUR  COUNTRY 
By  D.  LANGE 

Illustrated    I2mo    Cloth   $1.50  net 

MR.  LANGE  is  the  superintendent  of 
schools,  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  and  is  famed 
for  his  knowledge  of  both  natural  and 
political  history.  He  is  also  an  expert  in  the 
very  difficult  art  of  interesting  boyspro/.iably, 
and  has  proved  it  to  a  very  wide  circle  by  his 
previous  books.  His  third  book,  also  an  In- 
dian story,  has  the  elements  of  popularity: 
mystery,  peril,  and  daring,  told  in  graphic 
style,  and  presenting  Indian  nature  and  the 
general  life  of  the  great  wild  regions  in  the 
North  with  both  charm  and  authority. 

"  It  is  a  thrilling  story  of  Indian  life.  The 
author  knows  his  subject  thoroughlyand  write* 
with  admirable  simplicity  and  directiess." — Ex- 
aminer- Watchman. 

IN  THE  GREAT  WILD  NORTH 
By  D.  LANGE 

Illustrated  by  W.  L.  HOWES     12  mo    Cloth 
Price,  $1.50  net 

'"THE  story  opens  at  a  Hudson  Bay  trading 
*•  post,  where  the  father  of  a  sturdy 
Scotch  lad,  Steve  McLean,  is  in  charge. 
Wishing  a  home  of  their  own,  Steve  and 
his  father,  with  a  faithful  Indian  as  guide, 
make  a  five-hundred-mile  canoe  trip  to  Red 
River,  and  join  in  one  of  great  historic 
buffalo  hunts,  after  which  they  make  a  thrill- 
ing escape  from  the  hostile  Blackfeet  Indians, 
Then  comes  a  most  adventurous  trip  down 
the  Arkansas  River  to  the  Mississippi  and 
thence  to  St.  Louis,  where  the  story  closes 
happily.  It  gives  a  stirring,  accurate  and 
fascinating  account  of  pioneer  life  as  the 
hardy  men  and  boys  of  earlier  days  knew  it. 

"  Mr.  Lnnge's  volume  gives  z.  faithful  account  of  early  pioneer  days  and 
hardships,  introducing  much  valuable  knowledge  of  Indian  craft  and  wild  life." 
—  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger. 

For  Bale  by  all  booksellers,  or  sent  postpaid  on  receipt 
of  price  by  the  publishers 

Lothrop,  Lee  &  Shepard  Co,       Boston 


IN  THE  GREAT 
WILD  NORTH 


BOOKS   BY   EVERETT  T.  TOMLINSON. 


THE-BOY 
SAILORS 

612 


THE  WAR  OF   1812  SERIES 

Seven  volumes    doth    Illustrated      - 

NO  American  writer  for  boys  has  ever 
occupied  a  higher  position  than  Dr. 
Tomlinson,  and  the  "War  of  1812  Series" 
covers  a  field  attempted  by  no  other  juvenile 
literature  in  a  manner  that  has  secured  con- 
tinued popularity. 

The  Search  for  Andrew  Field 
The  Boy  Soldiers  of  1812 
The  Boy  Officers  of  1812 
Teeumseh's  Young  Braves 
Gnarding  the  Border 
The  Boys  with  Old  Hickory 
The  Boy  Sailors  of  1812 

ST.   LAWRENCE  SERIES 

doth    Illustrated  *     ; 

""THE  author  stands  in  the  very  front  rank  in  ability  to  instruct  the 
1  young  while  entertaining  them  and  here  presents  a  series  in  his  beat 
and  strongest  vein.  A  party  of  boys,  fascinated  by  the  glowing  narrative 
of  Parkman,  spend  several  summers  in  camp  and  on  the  majestic  St. 
Lawrence,  tracing  the  footsteps  of  the  early  explorers,  and  having  the 
best  time  imaginable  in  combining  pleasure  with  information. 

CAHPING  ON  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE 

Or,  On  the  Trail  of  the  Early  Discoverers 

THE  HOUSE-BOAT  ON  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE 

Or,  Following  Frontenae 

CRUISING  IN  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE 

Or,  A  Summer  Vacation  in  Historic  Waters 

for  Bale  by  alt  booksellers  or  feat  postpaid  on  receipt 
of  price  by  the  publishers 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO.,  BOSTON 


THE  BOY  ELECTRICIAN 

Practical  Plans  for  Electrical  Toys  and  Apparatus,  with  an 
Explanation  of  the  Principles  of  Every-Day  Electricity 

By  ALFRED  P.  MORGAN 

Author  of  ™Wireleu  Telegraphy  Construction  for  Amateurs"  and 

"  Wireless  Telegraphy  and  Telephony  "    300  illustrations 

and  working  drawings  by  the  author 


'T'HIS  is  the  age  of  electricity.  The  most 
-I-  fascinating  of  all  books  for  a  boy  must, 
therefore,  be  one  dealing  with  the  mystery  of 
this  ancient  force  and  modern  wonder.  The 
best  qualified  of  experts  to  instruct  boys  has 
in  a  book  far  superior  to  any  other  of  its  kind 
told  not  only  how  to  MAKE  all  kinds  of 
motors,  telegraphs,  telephones,  batteries, 
etc.v  but  how  these  appliances  are  used  in 
the  great  industrial  world. 


"Of  all  books  recently  published  on  practical  electricity  for  the  youth 
lul  electricians,  it  is  doubtful  if  there  is  even  one  among-  them  that  is  more 
suited  to  this  field.  This  work  is  recommended  to  every  one  interested  in 
electricity  and  the  making'  of  electrical  appliances." 

Popular  Electricity  and  Modern  Mechanic* 

"This  is  an  admirably  complete  and  explicit  handbook  for  boys  who  fali 
under  the  spell  of  experimenting  and  "tinkering"  with  electrical  apparatus. 
Simple  explanations  of  the  principles  involved  make  the  operation  readily 
understandable."  Boston  Transcript. 

"  Any  boy  who  studies  this  book,  and  applies  himself  to  the  making  and 
operating  of  the  simple  apparatus  therein  depicted,  will  be  usefully  and  happily 
employed.  He  will,  furthermore,  be  developing  into  a  useful  citizen.  For  this 
reason  we  recommend  it  as  an  excellent  gift  for  all  boys  with  energy,  appli- 
cation, and  ambition."  Electrical  Record,  N.  Y.  City 

"A  book  to  delight  the  hearts  of  ten  thousand  —  perhaps  fifty  thousand  — 
American  boys  who  are  interested  in  wireless  telegraphy  and  that  sort  of  thing. 
Any  boy  who  has  even  a  slight  interest  in  things  electrical,  will  kindle  with 
enthusiasm  at  sight  of  this  book."  Chicago  Newt. 


Par  tale  by  mil  booksellers  or  teat  postpaid  oa  receipt  of 
price  by  the  publisher* 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO.,  BOSTON 


The  Book  of  Athletics 

Edited  by  PAUL  WITHINGTON 

With  mam  reproductions  of  photographs,  and  with  diagram* 


NEARLY  thirty  college  stars  and 
champions,  men  like  Dr.  Kraen- 
zlein,  Thorpe,  Ketcham,  "Sammy" 
White,  "Eddie"  Hart,  Ralph  Craig, 
"Hurry  Up"  Yost,  Jay  Camp,  Homer, 
Jackson,  F.  D.  Huntington,  R.  Norris 
Williams,  "Eddie"  Mahan,  and  many 
more  tell  the  best  there  is  to  tell  about 
every  form  of  athletic  contest  of  con- 
sequence. In  charge  of  the  whole 
work  is  Paul  Withington,  of  Harvard, 
famous  as  football  player,  oarsman, 
wrestler  and  swimmer. 

"  Here  is  a  book  that  will  serve  a  purpose  and  satisfy  a  need. 
Every  important  phase  of  sport  in  school  and  college  is  discussed 
within  its  covers  by  men  who  have  achieved  eminent  success  in  their 
line.  Methods  of  training,  styles  of  play,  and  directions  for  attaining 
success  are  expounded  in  a  clear,  forceful,  attractive  manner." 

Harvard  Monthly. 

"  The  book  is  made  up  under  the  direction  of  the  best  qualified 
editor  to  be  found,  Paul  Withington,  who  is  one  of  America's  greatest 
amateur  athletes,  and  who  has  the  intellectual  ability  and  high 
character  requisite  for  presenting  such  a  book  properly.  The  emphasis 
placed  upon  clean  living,  fair  play  and  moderation  in  all  things  makes 
this  book  as  desirable  educationally  as  it  is  in  every  other  way." 

Outdoor  Life 

"  That  Mr.  Withington's  book  will  be  popular  we  do  not  doubt. 
For  it  contains  a  series  of  expert  treatises  on  all  important  branches 
of  outdoor  sports.  A  very  readable,  practical,  well-illustrated  book." 

Boston  Herald. 


for  tale  by  mil  booksellers  or  teat  oa  receipt  of  postpaid 
price  by  the  publisher* 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO.,  BOSTON 


A     000  1 1 1  400     8 


